Stick Fly: casting announced for B'way premiere

Dulé Hill, Mekhi Phifer, Tracie Thoms, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Condola Rashad will star in the Broadway premiere of Stick Fly, by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Kenny Leon.

The comedy opens at the Cort Theatre on 8 Dec 2011, following previews from 18 Nov 2011, and currently selling tickets through to 29 Jan 2012.

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.

Dule Hill will play 'Kent "Spoon" Levay' (a writer), Tracie Thoms will play 'Taylor' (Kent's fiancée and an entomologist), and Tony Award-winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson will play 'Joe Levay' (Kent & Flip's father and a neurosurgeon).

Making their Broadway debuts, Mekhi Phifer will play 'Flip Levay' (a plastic surgeon) and Condola Rashad (Ruined) will play 'Cheryl' (a maid).

Casting for the role of 'Kimber,' a part-time teacher, will be announced at a later date.

The creative team for Stick Fly includes David Gallo (scenic design), Reggie Ray (costume design), Beverly Emmons (lighting design) and Richard Fitzgerald / Sound Associates (sound design).

The show is being produced on Broadway by Nelle Nugent, Alicia Keys, Samuel Nappi, Reuben Cannon, Sharon A. Carr/Patricia Klausner, Huntington Theatre Company, Dan Frishwasser, Charles Salameno in association with Joseph Sirola & Eric Falkenstein.

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).