Full Cast, Creative Team Set for Signature’s King Hedley II

Cherise Boothe, Lynda Gravatt, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Russell Hornsby, Curtis McClarin, and Lou Myers will star in the Signature Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson’s King Hedley II, February 20-April 15. They will play, respectively, the roles of Tonya, Ruby, Elmore, King, Mister, and Stool Pigeon. The production, which concludes Signature’s all-Wilson season, will be directed by Derrick Sanders.

Set in a backyard in the decaying Hill District of Pittsburgh, the play follows the characters created by Wilson in Seven Guitars. A woman is tormented by a secret she has kept for 36 years, while her only son, King, returns home after serving time for murder to find a neighborhood riddled with crime, poverty, and broken families. King’s epic struggle to survive is at the center of this poetic portrayal of life in the inner city during the 1980s.

The play was produced on Broadway in 2001starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Leslie Uggams, Charles Brown, and Viola Davis; they all received Tony Award nominations, with Davis taking home the trophy for Best Supporting Actress. In addition, Henderson played Stool Pigeon in that production. The show also earned Tony nominations for Best Play and for director Marian McClinton.

The show’s creative team includes scenic design by David Gallo (who did the Broadway set), costume design by Reggie Ray, lighting design by Thom Weaver, and sound design by Jill BC Duboff. Sanders is the founding artistic director of Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre Company, where he directed Seven Guitars and appeared in Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. He also served as assistant director for the Broadway production of Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean.