Christopher’s New Play Set To Open
The curtain rises next month on the world premiere production of “Hurt Village”, the much-anticipated new drama by Broadway playwright Katori Hall, featuring Bermuda actor Nicholas Christopher [pictured] in one of the leading roles.
Ms Hall wrote Broadway’s current sensation “The Mountaintop”, a meditation on the last night of assassinated civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King’s life which stars Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett.
“The Hurt Village” is currently in rehearsals leading up to a February 7 first preview which will christen the new Signature Center’s Romulus Linney Courtyard Theater on West 42nd Street in New York.
Mr. Christopher, the son of Hamilton Crier Ed Christopher, made his off-Broadway debut last year in the acclaimed revival of the ’80s-era rock musical “Rent.”
A graduate of the Boston Conservatory and New York’s Juilliard School, Mr. Christopher had launched his theatrical career in 2011 in the touring company of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “In The Heights.”
Mr. Christopher and his “Rent” castmates sang legendary US talk show host Regis Philbin off the air last November during an appearance on his last episode of “Live! With Regis & Kathy Lee” with a specially reworked version of the musical’s signature song “Seasons Of Love.”
In addition to Mr. Christopher, the play — set in a Memphis housing project — will feature such Broadway veterans as Marsha Stephanie Blake [“The Merchant of Venice”; “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”), Corey Hawkins [“Suicide, Incorporated”), Ron Cephas Jones ["Gem of the Ocean", "The Bridge Project"], Joaquina Kalukango ["Godspell"], Tonya Pinkins ["Play On!"; "Jelly's Last Jam"] and Saycon Sengbloh ["Fela!", "Hair"].
Katori Hall Discusses ”The Mountaintop” & “Hurt Village”
Patricia McGregor will direct the drama about life and change in a family. “Hurt Village” will officially open on February 27 and continue its limited run until March 18.
The play is part of the Off-Broadway Signature’s expanded mission to produce new works.
“Hurt” Village” takes place at the end of a long summer in the namesake housing project in Memphis, Tennessee.
A government Hope Grant means relocation for many of the project’s residents, including Cookie, a 13-year-old aspiring rapper, along with her mother Crank and great-grandmother Big Mama.
As the family prepares to move, Cookie’s father Buggy unexpectedly returns from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Ravaged by the war, Buggy struggles to find a position in his disintegrating community, along with a place in his daughter’s wounded heart.”
The gritty work earned Katori Hall the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, given annually to an outstanding female playwright.
Nicholas Christopher And The Cast Of “Rent” Singing That Show’s Signature Song “Seasons Of Love”
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