'Ain't No Mo'' sets full Broadway cast, including Crystal Lucas-Perry
Multiple cast members from the show's Off-Broadway premiere return.
Mo' casting has been set! The Broadway premiere of Jordan E. Cooper's Ain't No Mo' has set its full cast ahead of the show's first performance on November 3. Opening night is December 1 at the Belasco Theatre.
Crystal Lucas-Perry, who is currently leading 1776 on Broadway until October 23, will return to Ain't No Mo' after performing in its 2019 Off-Broadway premiere at The Public Theater. Other returning cast members are Fedna Jacquet, Marchánt Davis, and Ebony Marshall-Oliver.
New cast member Shannon Matesky joins for the Broadway production, and Nik Alexander, Jasminn Johnson, Michael Rishwan, Kedren Spencer, Brennie Tellu, and Emma Van Lare are understudies.
They all join the previously announced Cooper, who will star in his own show as the flight attendant Peaches, a role he originated off Broadway.
On the creative team, joining previously announced director Stevie Walker-Webb are scenic designer Scott Pask, costume designer Emilio Sosa, lighting designer Adam Honoré, sound designers Jonathan Deans and Taylor Williams, and wig designer Mia M. Neal.
Ain't No Mo' is a satire that answers the question: What would happen if nearly all Black Americans hopped a one-way flight to Africa on the U.S. government's dime, as a means of "solving" racism? The show plays out in a series of vignettes aboard Flight 1619 and beyond, narrated by Peaches. The play was an Off-Broadway hit, with a five-star New York Theatre Guide review reading, "This is more than a story about specific characters. It is a story of a diaspora withdrawing itself from a stage on which it never intended to be."
With Ain't No Mo', Cooper becomes the youngest-ever Black American Broadway playwright at 27 years old.
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