HBO Will Adapt Stick Fly with Music by Alicia Keys
© David Gordon
The most dramatic moments often occur in the most genteel and picturesque settings, and the masters of drama at HBO frequently use this trope to their advantage.
The network is currently adapting Stick Fly, Lydia Diamond’s Broadway dramedy about an affluent African-American family’s weekend at Martha’s Vineyard – and the class, race and identity politics that stir up over the course of their vacation.
The playwright herself will write the script, adapting it to an hour-long format, and will also co-produce the telefilm alongside five-time Tony Award winner Nelle Nugent (Dracula ) and we-lost-count Grammy Award-winner Alicia Keys, who is no stranger to Diamond.
Keys was the lead producer of the show’s Broadway run in 2011-2012, and composed original music for the show. She will write the score for the television version as well.
“I’m passionate about this play because it is so beautifully written and portrays Black America in a way that we don’t often get to see in entertainment,” Keys said during the play’s initial run. “I know it will touch audiences who will find a piece of themselves somewhere inside this house.”
Diamond, who made her Broadway debut with Stick Fly, also penned productions of The Gift Horse, The Bluest Eye and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
The show’s cast included Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad (Lifetime’s Steel Magnolias), Dulé Hill (She’s All That), Mekhi Phifer (ER), Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Gem of the Ocean) and Tracie Thoms (Drowning Crow). The cast list for the HBO adaptation has yet to be announced in its development stage.
