NEW YORK — In what is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing Broadway revivals of the spring, Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Williams and Condola Rashad have joined previously announced star Cicely Tyson in The Trip to Bountiful.
The new production of Horton Foote‘s elegiac play about an elderly woman’s determination to make one final journey back to her childhood home in small-town Texas begins previews March 31 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Directed by Michael Wilson, it is scheduled for a limited 14-week engagement, with official opening set for April 23.
While the play — including its television and film incarnations — traditionally has been performed with such actresses as Lillian Gish, Geraldine Page and Lois Smith in the central role of Carrie Watts, this production casts the woman and her family as African American characters.
A best supporting actor Oscar winner for Jerry Maguire, Gooding will make his professional stage debut in the production. He will next be seen onscreen in Robert Rodriguez‘s Machete Kills and Lee Daniels‘ The Butler.
Recently seen on network TV as a series regular on Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives and 666 Park Avenue, Williams’ previous Broadway credits include the musicals Into the Woods, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Sondheim on Sondheim.
Rashad (the daughter of veteran actress Phylicia Rashad) first turned heads Off Broadway in Lynn Nottage‘s Pulitzer-winning drama Ruined. She earned a Tony nomination this year for her Broadway debut in Lydia R. Diamond‘s Stick Fly and was recently featured in Lifetime’s black makeover of Steel Magnolias.
Lead producers on the Bountiful revival are Nelle Nugent and Kenneth Teaton.
