BROADBEND,
ARKANSAS
LIBRETTO BY ELLEN FITZHUGH &
HARRISON DAVID RIVERS
MUSIC AND ADDITIONAL LYRICS BY TED SHEN
DIRECTED BY JACK CUMMINGS III
PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH
THE PUBLIC THEATER
OCTOBER 25 – NOVEMBER 23, 2019
The Duke on 42nd Street
229 West 42nd Street
A World Premiere Musical
Produced in Association with The Public Theater
In Transport Group’s world premiere musical Broadbend, Arkansas, an African-American family grapples with decades of inequality, violence, and suppression in the South. Benny, an orderly at a nursing home, delicately balances his role as a caregiver to an ornery white resident who shares a contentious past with his white boss while at the same time caring for his own family as the fight for equality grips the nation in the midst of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Thirty years later, his daughter, Ruby, struggles to understand an incident of police brutality against her 15-year-old son. This unique musical, spanning nearly half a century and three generations, asks us to contemplate the cycle of violence in this country and how we will find hope and create change against the backdrop of hate that plagues America.
Cast
Justin Cunningham
Danyel Fulton
Creative Team
Jack Cummings III
Director
Jennifer Schriever
Lighting Design
Peiyi Wong
Costume Design
Walter Trarbach
Sound Design
Dane Laffrey
Scenic Consultant
Deborah Abramson
Musical Direction
Michael Starobin
Orchestrations
Nora Brennan
Casting
Special Performances
November 16 at 2pm
Special talkback with members of the creative team
November 17 at 3pm
Special talkback with members of the creative team
November 19 at 7:30
Community Night with a talkback moderated by special guest, Michael Dinwiddie of NYU and members of the creative team
November 20 at Noon
Special Student Matinee for the High School of Art and Design. Talkback to follow
Photos
Cunningham’s mesmerizing shifts in body language and vocal quality invite the audience into Benny’s world with a sense of wonder and anticipation.
– The Broadway Blog
A gripping meditation on identity and parenthood, gloriously performed by Danyel Fulton as the eponymous mother
– Slant Magazine
A beautiful, urgent exploration of race and activism alongside the family and the deep ties that bind them
– Oskar Eustis, The Public Theater
Fall Theater Pick
– The New York Times