The tour of the Tony Award-winning revival of August Wilson’s “Jitney” has its cast and has set dates for a handful of initial cities, not including Pittsburgh.
The production, opening in Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, is directed by Tony nominee Ruben Santiago-Hudson, a longtime interpreter of the works of Wilson and the adapter of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” now filming in Pittsburgh.
The cast was announced Wednesday and includes Harvy Blanks, Anthony Chisholm, Keith Randolph Smith and Ray Anthony Thomas from the 2017 revival. Joining them are Francois Battiste, Amari Cheatom and Brian D. Coats.
The New York run by “Jitney” in 2017 earned six Tony nominations and made it a perfect 10 for all the plays in Wilson’s American Century Cycle to reach Broadway. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Wilson, who grew up in the Hill District, set the story in Pittsburgh circa the 1970s, when a group of jitney drivers are threatened with a loss of business and the boss’ son has just returned from prison.
The tour opens at Arena Stage (Sept. 13-Oct. 20), and moves on to Detroit (Nov. 12-16), Los Angeles (Nov. 22-Dec. 29), San Diego (Jan. 18-Feb. 23, 2020) and Wilson’s late-in-life home, Seattle (Feb. 28-March 29, 2020).
Pittsburgh will not be without a Wilson work this year. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company will present “Gem of the Ocean,” opening in previews Aug. 16, on a Wylie Avenue, Hill District hillside, the address that the playwright gave as the play’s site.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.
First Published: July 31, 2019, 8:02 p.m.
