Purlie Victorious
Broadway Revival
Purlie Victorious is set on the heels of Reconstruction in an era where Jim Crow laws are still were in effect in the American South. Its focus is on the dynamic traveling charismatic preacher, Purlie Victorious Judson, who returns to his small Georgia town hoping to save Big Bethel, the community's church to emancipate the cotton pickers who work on oppressive Ol' Cap'n Cotchipee's plantation. With the assistance of Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins and the community, Purlie hopes to pry loose from Cotchipee an inheritance he uses to achieve his goals.
September 7 – February 4, 2024
“Purlie Victorious' production team is a true homecoming moment for the organization. With our commitment to civic and social justice, NBT’s founder, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, collaborated with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee–theatrical icons on the frontlines of justice work–to tell unapologetically Black stories like Purlie Victorious. While involved in the original production and film adaptation, Dr. Teer forged relationships where she found comradery, community, and love. We are thrilled to extend the indelible legacy of Ossie, Ruby, and Dr. Teer by reviving the seminal, satirical text. Over 60 years later, Purlie Victorious lends an unflinching eye on the truth of our times.”
- Sade Lythcott, CEO, National Black Theatre
Playwright: Ossie Davis
Cast: Leslie Odom, Jr., Vanessa Bell Calloway, Billy Eugene Jones, Noah Pyzik, Noah Robbins, Jay O. Sanders, Heather Alicia Simms, Bill Timoney and Kara Young.
Director: Kenny Leon
Designers: Derek Mclane (Scenic) ; Emilio Sosa (Costumes); Adam Honore (Lighting); Peter Fitzgerald (Sound)
“A bucketful of bristling laughs. Wild, outrageous fantasy. Unique in style, rollicking irony, and rich in its highly individual humor.”
— NY Herald Tribune
Ossie Davis
Playwright
LEADING ARTIST
Ossie Davis–actor, writer, producer, director, and activist (December 18, 1917 - February 4, 2005)–is known as one the most prolific and fearless artists in American culture born out of Cogdell, Georgia. He has created profound and lasting work that has touched us all. Some of his credits span a career more than half a century old. Most noteablely, he has written and directed films (1970's Cotton Comes to Harl), plays (including 1961's controversial exploration of segregation, Purlie Victorious, and the book for its musical adaptation, Purlie!), and television films (For Us the Living: The Story of Medgar Evers).
Married to the equally prolific Ruby Dee, with courage and tenacity they have opened many doors previously shut to African American artists and planted the seed for the flowering of America's multicultural humanity.
"When Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were honored by the Screen Actors' Guild with its highest honor, the Life achievement Award, SAG president William Daniels said: "For more than half a century, they have enriched and transformed American life as brilliant actors, writers, directors, producers, and passionate advocates for social justice, human dignity, and creative excellence."