Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s ‘Lackawanna Blues’ Sets September Broadway Opening

Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Lackawanna Blues is now the fifth show set to begin performances on Sept. 14, the first day of Broadway’s post-shutdown reopening. The play – written, performed and directed by Santiago-Hudson (Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) – will be the season’s first Broadway production by a nonprofit theater company.

MTC also announced today that its much-anticipated Broadway production of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive, starring Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse, will, as expected, begin performances in Spring 2022, two years after its initially scheduled production was scuttled due to the pandemic.

Lackawanna Blues will begin performances Tuesday, September 14, and open Tuesday, September 28, at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The play will feature original music by Bill Sims, Jr. performed on stage by blues guitarist Junior Mack.

Off Broadway, MTC will stage the previously announced world premiere of Simon Stephens’ Morning Sun starring Blair Brown, Edie Falco and Marin Ireland. Directed by Lila Neugebauer, Morning Sun will begin performances Tuesday, October 12, and open Wednesday, November 3, at New York City Center – Stage I.

MTC will follow health and safety guidance of New York City, New York State, and the CDC, with flexible ticket refund and exchange policies in place. Tickets for Lackawanna Blues go on sale to the general public beginning Tuesday, August 10, and for Morning Sun beginning Tuesday, September 7.

As described by MTC, Lackawanna Blues features a solo performance by Santiago-Hudson in a play “celebrating the strong, big-hearted woman who raised him: Miss Rachel. In a 1950s boarding house outside Buffalo, Nanny, as she was affectionately called, opened her doors to anyone and everyone in need of kindness, hope, compassion, and care.” Santiago-Hudson plays more than 20 characters.

Morning Sun is set in Greenwich Village a generation or so ago, and as 50 years pass, one woman’s life is revealed in all its complexity, mystery and possibility.

Other MTC productions slated for the 2021-22 season include:

• • the Broadway premiere of Skeleton Crew, written by Dominique Morisseau and directed by Santiago-Hudson at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Winter 2022
  • the world premiere Off Broadway of Prayer For The French Republic, written by Joshua Harmon and directed by David Cromer at New York City Center – Stage I. Winter 2022
  • the American premiere Off Broadway of Golden Shield, written by Anchuli Felicia King and directed by Danya Taymor, at New York City Center – Stage I. Spring 2022

Additional information on those productions will be announced later.