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black odyssey
black odyssey Tickets

black odyssey Tickets

New York
9 Feb 2023 - 26 Mar 2023
Go on an epic journey at this modern, all-Black reimagining of a classic tale.
80
Great
159 Reviews on Show-Score

black odyssey Information

black odyssey is at Classic Stage Company in winter 2022. Get black odyssey tickets in New York now.

black odyssey is a play based on Homer's classic Greek epic the Odyssey, set in present-day Harlem. That poem followed war hero Odysseus on his 10-year journey home from the Trojan War. This new play centers on Ulysses Lincoln, a contemporary soldier taking a difficult trip of his own after serving in Afghanista, hoping to reconnect with his family. But his journey is internal; he must battle vengeful gods and other supernatural beings, but also the mortal realities of being a Black American soldier, within himself. And his journey is guided not by fate, but his ancestors. Their history gradually reveals itself to Ulysses and informs his way as he journeys on.

black odyssey has taken a far-reaching journey of its own, with its New York premiere years in the making. The show premiered with the Denver Center Theatre Company in Colorado in 2014 and had a second production at California Shakespeare Theater, where the play's setting was changed to Oakland. Its 2022 New York premiere was then postponed to 2023.

black odyssey is by Marcus Gardley, who has made a career of adapting classics. His play ...And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi is adapted from the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter, and The House That Will Not Stand, adapted from Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, won a 2019 Obie Award for playwriting.

Directing black odyssey in New York is Stevie Walker-Webb, who made his Broadway debut in 2022 directing Jordan E. Cooper's Ain't No Mo'. He previously won an Obie Award for directing that play off Broadway, and he also directed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fairview.

Classic Stage Company hosts black odyssey off Broadway; the company is dedicated to producing revivals and new adaptations of classic stories.

Get black odyssey tickets now.

Opening date

February 9th, 2023

Closing date

March 26th, 2023

Categories

Opening Soon, Plays

Venue

Classic Stage Company

Cast and creative

By: Marcus Gardley
Director: Stevie Walker-Webb Choreography: Aquila Kikora Franklin Producer: Classic Stage Company Cast list: Sean Boyce Johnson (as Ulysses Lincoln), D. Woods (as Nella P. Lincoln), James T. Alfred (as Deus), Tẹmídayọ Amay (as Benevolence), Harriett D. Foy (as Aunt Tee), Marcus Gladney Jr. (as Malachai Lincoln), Adrienne C. Moore (as Alsendra Sabine), Jimonn Cole (as Paw Sidin), Lance Coadie Williams (as Artez Sabine)
Design: David Goldstein
Costumes: Kindall Almond
Lighting: Adam Honoré
Other info: Music direction by Linda Tillery and Molly Holm, assistant direction by PJ Johnnie JR.

Our review

Odysseus, the tortured hero of Homer’s Odyssey, spends 10 years lost at sea en route home to Ithaca. Ulysses (Sean Boyce Johnson), a Black American soldier deployed to Afghanistan, travels decades through his own bloodstream to reach his despondent wife and son, searching sea, river, and Harlem for the ancestor who will “baptize you of the blood on your hands,” as Deus (James T. Alfred) tells him, so he will be worthy of his home. Thus sets sail black odyssey, the modern retelling from Marcus...

Latest black odyssey News & Features

UPDATE: Jimonn Cole will take over the role of Paw Sidin from the previously announced Keith Randolph Smith, who had to step away due to injury. Classic Stage Company has set the full cast for its production of black odyssey, written by Marcus Gardley. The New York-premiere play will run from February 9 to March 26, with opening night on February 26. The cast is led by Sean Boyce Johnson as Ulysses Lincoln and Danity Kane's D. Woods as Nella P. Lincoln. The cast also includes James T. Alfred as...