Broadway Revival of for colored girls Postponed

The Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange’s acclaimed play, for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, has been postponed. According to a press statement, “the temporary delay is the result of the recent loss of one of the production’s key backers.”

The production was scheduled to begin previews at Circle in the Square Theatre August 19, with an opening set for September 8. The production will be directed by Shirley Jo Finney, with choreography by Hinton Battle, and will mark the Broadway debut of two-time Grammy Award winner India.Arie.

The show is a series of prose poems and stories illuminating the identity of black women in America, as they reveal themselves, their lives, triumphs, hardships and ultimately their discovery of inner strength and love. This production will feature new and updated material from the playwright, and is produced by Whoopi Goldberg and DreamTeam Entertainment Group.

The creative team will include Harold Wheeler (musical direction), Scott Bradley (set), Paul Tazewell (costumes), Victor Tan (lighting) and Mitch Greenhill (sound).

India.Arie is the recipient of two Grammy Awards, along with a total of 16 Grammy nominations and three NAACP Image Awards. She is currently working on her fourth studio album, Testimony: Vol. II, Love & Politics.

Shange received an Obie Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award, as well as Tony and Grammy Award nominations for for colored girls…. Her other plays include Spell #7, A Photograph; Lovers in Motion, Boogie Woogie Landscapes and The Love Space Demands: A Continuing Saga. She has been honored with the Columbia Medal of Excellence, The Los Angeles Times Award for Poetry, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Finney won an NAACP Image Award and an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for her West Coast production of Yellow Man. Battle is a three-time Tony winner for his performances in Sophisticated Ladies, Miss Saigon, and The Tap Dance Kid. He is a recipient of the NAACP Image Award and The Fred Astaire Award.

For more information, visit www.ForColoredGirlsBway.com.