The 2025-26 Broadway season closes out with a trio of strong revivals of diverse shows—Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Proof, and The Rocky Horror Show. Each offers a vastly different theatrical experience, pushing a dissimilar set of sensory buttons, but all share the thrill of connecting audiences to thoughtful examinations of timeless issues. Well, the last one is really about having a good dirty time.
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Cedric the Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson
in Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes |
Debbie Allen’s production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone leans a little heavily on broad humor, but still imparts the author’s searing indictment of the traumatic effect of institutional racism on the African-American community. This is Wilson’s third play in his decade-by-decade examination of the black experience in America in the 20th century (premiering on Broadway in 1988 after Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Fences) and the second one chronologically. Set in a 1911 Pittsburgh boarding house, the play follows the residents’ struggles as they deal with the restrictions and devastation wrought by the white majority in the aftermath of slavery. With the exception of Seth and Bertha Holly, the owners of the house (top-billed Cedric the Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson), they all lead a transitory existence, searching for a stable life. Cedric is firmly grounded in Seth’s no-nonsense approach of maintaining order in his house and expanding his metalwork business. At times, Henson relies too much on comic bits of business, but she clearly delineates Bertha’s motherly rule over her boarders.
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Joshua Boone and Ruben Santiago-Hudson
in Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes |
The mysterious Herald Loomis (blazingly intense Joshua Boone), accompanied by his little daughter Zonia (a professional Savannah Commodore at the performance attended), is searching for his wife. They were separated when Loomis was abducted by Joe Turner of the title, a white “man-catcher” who abducted African-American men into enforced labor under the guise of the law. Cocky young Jeremy Furrow (bubbly and fun Tripp Taylor) bounces from job to job and woman to woman while entering blues contests with his guitar. Mattie Campbell (sympathetic Nimene Sierra Wureh) desperately clings to Jeremy after losing a baby and then her man. But flirtatious Molly Cunningham (delightfully seductive Maya Boyd) entrances Jeremy away. Offering solace and curing charms is the sage folk healer Bynum Walker (majestic and subtly commanding Ruben Santiago-Hudson).
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Bradley Stryker, Abigail Onwunali, Cedric the
Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson,
Savannah Commodore, Joshua Boone and
Nimene Sierra Wureh in
Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes |
Loomis has been traumatized by his experience as Joe Turner’s prisoner and his quest for redemption becomes the main focus of the play. Boone delivers a searing performance as this anguished soul. The entire cast which also includes Abigail Onwulnali as Loomis’s long-lost wife (a passionate cameo), Bradley Stryker as the deceptively folksy white traveling trader Rutherford Selig, and Jackson Edward Davis (at the performance attended) as Reuben, a neighboring lad who exchanges stories and secrets with Zonia, create indelible, relatable strivers each following their objectives to find stability.
The original 1988 staging by Lloyd Richards was strictly naturalistic, but Allen allows Wilson’s lyrical side to emerge with mystical, dream-like direction aided by the fantasy-infused lighting of Stacey Derosier and ghostly sound design by Justin Ellington. David Gallo’s lived-in set incorporates the imposing industrial environs of Pittsburgh into the sanctuary of the Holly home in this insightful production of one of Wilson’s best works.
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Ayo Edebiri, Don Cheadle, and Jin Ha in
Proof.
Credit: Matthew Murphy |
David Auburn’s Proof also returns to Broadway with a vibrant new staging. Originally presented Off-Broadway in 2000, the play later transferred to a Main Stem commercial run and won a Pulitzer Prize and the Tony for Best Play. Family dynamics and the fine line between genius and madness are at the core of this moving drama. Rudderless Catherine (Ayo Edebiri in a layered performance) grapples with her sanity and grief after the death of her father Robert, a renowned mathematician (Don Cheadle deeply limning the many facets of this complex character.) The questionable authorship of a potentially groundbreaking proof lies at the heart of the plot as Catherine’s sister Claire (compassionate Kara Young) and Hal, a former student of Robert’s (sturdy Jin Ha), attempt to make sense of the puzzle and do what they think is best for Catherine and for Robert’s legacy.
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Kara Young and Ayo Edebiri in Proof.
Credit: Matthew Murphy |
Thomas Kail directs with a sure hand, building tension and clearly delineating Catherine’s conflict, beautifully limned by Edebiri. Young adds dimension to Claire who has been portrayed in previous productions and the 2005 film version as a controlling bitch. This gifted actress show us that Claire really cares about Catherine and is only proceeding in what she regards as her sister’s best interest. Casting African-American actors as Catherine, Robert and Claire adds subtextual resonance, particularly in Catherine's struggle to be taken seriously as a mathematician.
The season ends on a sexy, wildly untamed note with Roundabout Theatre Company’s super-campy and riotously rebellious revival of the cult favorite The Rocky Horror Show. Director Sam Pinkleton brings the same sort of irreverent, bawdy wit to the staging as he did with Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola’s savage non-history lesson. The design team dots transforms Studio 54 into a creepy haunted-house scare ride where the “sweet transvestite” Dr. Frank N. Furter (an overpowering Luke Evans) performs mad, libidinal experiments as well as teases and shocks the innocent, white-bread Brad and Janet (superbly square Andrew Durand and Stephanie Hsu).
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Juliette Lewis, Andrew Durand, Stephanie Hsu,
and Amber Gray in The Rocky Horror Show.
Credit: Joan Marcus |
This bizarre, satiric hoot played a month of performances in its initial Broadway run in 1975 (though the British edition played for seven years.) It was the film version released the same year that transformed the property into an international, audience-participation sensation after numerous college-campus and indie-cinema midnight screenings. Author-songwriter Richard O’Brien combines a lovingly nasty tribute to B-movie horror and sci-fi tropes with an outrageously liberated queer sensibility. Luke Evans is a fabulous force of nature whose rock vocals bring the haunted house down. This handsome insatiable creature in high heels and a corset (David I. Reynoso designed the outlandish costumes) blends masculine and feminine in one intoxicating package. Durand and Hsu are the perfect conventional foils for the unsavory and scandalous hijinks that surround them. As their guards drop and they give way to suppressed passions, both display unbridled joy. Rachel Dratch is a droll narrator and Amber Gray a gorgeously garish ghoul as Riff Raff. Juliette Lewis surprises with impressive pipes as the manic maid Magenta and the movie usher who introduces the evening with a sly rendition of “Science Fiction/Double Feature.” As Columbia, Michaela Jae Rodriguez enchants with her Betty Boop voice which is humorously and delightfully incongruous with her sleek, feline body. Harvey Guillen skillfully doubles as punkish Eddie and the straight-laced Dr. Scott. At the performance attended, understudy Boy Radio went on for Josh Rivera as Rocky, Frank’s muscleman creation, and nailed it.
Audience members yell out responses and a select few are pulled on stage to participate in the Time Warp dance as in the movie experience. Rocky Horror rocks out the season with a primal roar of pleasure.
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Luke Evans and Josh Rivera in
The Rocky Horror Show.
Credit: Joan Marcus |
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone: April 25—July 26. Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 W. 47th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 40 mins. including intermission. telecharge.com.
Proof: April 16—July 19. Booth Theater, 222 W. 44th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 15 mins. including intermission. telecharge.com.
The Rocky Horror Show: April 23—Nov. 29. Roundabout Theater Company at Studio 54, 254 W. 54 St., NYC. Running time: two hours including intermission. roundabouttheatre.org
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