Theater News

De’Adre Aziza, NaTasha Yvette Williams Join Mary Bridget Davies in Broadway’s A Night With Janis Joplin

The production opens at the Lyceum Theatre on October 10.

NaTasha Yvette Williams
NaTasha Yvette Williams
(© David Gordon)

Tony Award nominee De’Adre Aziza (Passing Strange) and NaTasha Yvette Williams (The Color Purple) are among the actors who will join the previously announced Mary Bridget Davies in the upcoming Broadway production of Randy Johnson’s A Night With Janis Joplin. Previews are set to begin at the Lyceum Theatre on September 20 in advance of an October 10 opening.

Aziza and Williams, along with Taprena Michelle Augustine and Nikki Kimbrough, will play Janis Joplin’s backup singers, The Joplinaires. The company will also feature Kacee Clanton as the Janis Joplin alternate and Allison Blackwell and Alison Cusano as Joplinaire swings.

Clanton, who currently plays Janis in the San Jose production of the concert musical, will perform the role on Broadway Wednesday and Saturday matinees beginning October 12.

Using the late Joplin’s classic songs, the show celebrates the life of the rock-and-roll legend, exploring her explosion onto the music scene and the traits that made her a must-see headliner from Monterey, California, to Woodstock, New York. A Night With Janis Joplin is directed by Johnson and produced by Todd Gershwin and Daniel Chilewich, in association with The Estate of Janis Joplin and Jeffrey Jampol for JAM, Inc.

A Night With Janis Joplin played acclaimed engagements at Portland Center Stage, Cleveland Play House, Arena Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, and Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Davies, who took on the title role to great acclaim in all of these productions, received the 2013 Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical and a 2013 Helen Hayes Award nomination.

The creative team includes Patricia Wilcox (choreography), Justin Townsend (set and lighting deisgn), Amy Clark (costume design), Carl Casella (sound design), Darrel Maloney (projection design), Ross Seligman (musical direction), and Len Rhodes (original music direction and arrangements).

Click here for more information and tickets to A Night With Janis Joplin.

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A Night With Janis Joplin

Closed: February 9, 2014