Theater News

Common to Make Broadway Debut in Stephen Adly Guirgis's Between Riverside and Crazy

Austin Pendleton will direct the Second Stage production at the Helen Hayes Theater.

Common
Common
(© Brian Bowen Smith)

Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy-winner Common will make his Broadway debut this fall, rounding out the Broadway cast of Stephen Adly Guirgis's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Between Riverside and Crazy. Directed by Austin Pendleton, preview will begin November 30 ahead of a December 19 opening at the Hayes Theater.

Common will take on the role of Junior, originally played off-Broadway by Ray Anthony Thomas, and later Ron Cephas Jones. Common will join the rest of the original company of the play, which is led by Stephen McKinley Henderson, alongside Victor Almanzar, Elizabeth Canavan, Rosal Colón, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Michael Rispoli.

Second Stage originally presented Between Riverside and Crazy at its off-Broadway home, the Tony Kiser Theater, in February 2015. The play is described as follows: "City Hall is demanding more than his signature, the landlord wants him out, the liquor store is closed –
and the Church won't leave him alone. For ex-cop and recent widower Walter 'Pops' Washington and his recently paroled son Junior, the struggle to hold on to one of the last great rent stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive collides with old wounds, sketchy new house guests, and a final ultimatum in this Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy from Stephen Adly Guirgis. For Pops and Junior, it seems the Old Days are dead and gone – after a lifetime living Between Riverside and Crazy."

The Broadway production will have scenic design by Walt Spangler, costume design by Alexis Forte, lighting design by Keith Parham, and original music/sound design by Ryan Rumery.

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Between Riverside and Crazy

Closed: February 19, 2023