Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond, K. Leon directs

The Broadway premiere of Stick Fly, by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Kenny Leon. The cast and creative team are still to be announced.

Stick Fly will open on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on 8 Dec 2011, following previews from 18 Nov 2011. The comedy is currently booking through to 29 Jan 2012 and tickets are now on sale.

Stick Fly follows the LeVays, an affluent African American family who come together to spend a summer weekend at their Martha's Vineyard home. The adult sons, aspiring novelist Kent and golden boy plastic surgeon Flip, have each brought their respective ladies (one Black and one White) to meet the parents. Food, drink and Trivial Pursuit tangle with class, race and identity politics in this contemporary comedy of manners.

Director Kenny Leon said, "Stick Fly is one of those unique plays with a beauty that lies in its universality. Lydia Diamond is a master storyteller, combining humor with intellect. Her reach is as great as my friend August Wilson - her poetry and the world of the characters may differ, but the results are the same: an evening full of laughter and thought that keeps us talking long after we've left the theatre. I love plays where everyone can find themselves in the story on stage."

The show is being produced on Broadway by Grammy Award-winner Alicia Keys with Reuben Cannon & Nelle Nugent.

Producer Alicia Keys said, "This is a story that everybody can relate to. I'm passionate about this play because it is so beautifully written and portrays Black America in a way that we don't often get to see in entertainment. I know it will touch all audiences, who will find a piece of themselves somewhere inside this house."

Stick Fly was developed in a recent co-production last year between the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and Arena Stage in Washington D.C. The play had its world premiere at Chicago's Congo Square Theatre Company in 2006 and was subsequently performed at theatres including the McCarter Theatre in 2007 and the Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles in 2009.

Stick Fly is the recipient of 2011 Independent Reviewers of New England Awards for Best Play and Best Director of a Drama (Kenny Leon); 2010 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Production, Best Direction and Best Ensemble Performance; a 2010 LA Garland Award for Playwriting; a 2009 LA Weekly Theatre Award for Playwriting; and, the 2006 Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best New Play. It was also a 2008 Susan Blackburn Prize finalist and a nominee for the 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work.

The show has received a number of positive reviews: "Acutely Observent, laugh-out-loud funny, achingly painful, and complicated as only real human stories can be." Boston Globe; "A refreshingly vital story about relationships and richly complex characters." (Variety); "Funny and provocative." (Washington Examiner) and "A complex, funny, moving play." (Boston Herald).

Bios:

Lydia R. Diamond (Playwright) is making her Broadway debut with Stick Fly, other plays include 'Voyeurs de Venus,' 'The Bluest Eye,' 'The Gift Horse,' 'Harriet Jacobs,' 'Stage Black' and 'Lizzie Stranton.'

Kenny Leon (Director) was nominated for a Tony for his helming of the 2010 revival of August Wilson's 'Fences,' which starred Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. Other Broadway credits include 'Radio Golf,' 'Gem of the Ocean' and 'A Raisin in the Sun.' Leon is also to direct the upcoming Broadway premiere of Katori Hall's The Mountain Top, starring Samuel L. Jackson as ' Martin Luther King. Jr. Leon was nominated for Best Director by the Directors Guild of America for the television film of 'A Raisin in the Sun' which also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and won 3 NAACP Image Awards.