Theater News

Dominique Morisseau's Paradise Blue, With Blair Underwood and More, Released as Audio Play

The drama also stars André Holland and Simone Missick.

Blair Underwood
Blair Underwood
(© David Gordon)

Williamstown Theatre Festival and Audible Theater have released a new audio play edition of Dominique Morisseau's Paradise Blue, featuring André Holland, Simone Missick, and Blair Underwood.

Paradise Blue, the second play in Morisseau's Detroit trilogy, had its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2015 before opening at Signature Theatre in 2018. Directed by Ruben Santaigo-Hudson, the cast also includes Kristolyn Lloyd and Keith Randolph Smith, with a creative team made up of Bill Sims Jr. and Kenny Rampton (composers), Darron West (sound), and Bianca LaVerne Jones (assistant director).

The play is described as follows: "It's 1949 in Detroit's Black Bottom neighborhood, and there's no better place to hear or play jazz than Paradise Club. Blue (Underwood), club owner and trumpeter, can wail like no other, but as forces outside the club conspire to irreparably change life inside and outside Paradise's walls, he must decide whether to stay or sell. Beholden to his girlfriend (Lloyd) and fellow bandmates (Holland and Smith), Blue faces an uncertain future as he reckons with his troubled past. When Silver (Missick), a smooth and mysterious newcomer from Louisiana, steps onto the scene, everyone in Paradise must choose how to survive and if they can thrive."