Staying the course in the theater industry is a challenging and arduous endeavor for actors. For instance, Caribbean actress Cicely L. Tyson whose religious parents hailed from Nevis in the West Indies was harshly criticized for refusing to accept any acting role. Tyson decided to choose her path in the industry. And as a result for her role in “Sounder,” as the character Rebecca Morgan, Tyson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe award in 1972. Another milestone in Tyson’s career was her unforgettable starring role in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman”(1974).
The icon garnered two Emmy Awards and a BAFTA for her performance. By 1993, Tyson accumulated a total of three Prime-time Emmys. She returned to the big screen in “The Help.” Ambitiously she took on several acclaimed roles in television including that of Coretta Scott King. By 2013, Tyson secured the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award and the 67th Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her amazing role-playing as Carrie Watts in the Broadway production of “The Trip to Bountiful.”
The nonagenarian thespian who was married to jazz great Miles Davis joins two-time Tony-Awad winner James Earl Jones in D.L. Coburn’s “The Gin Game” under the direction of Leonard Foglia.
Television and Broadway actor Clifton Davis is Sultan in the Broadway musical comedy “Aladdin” at the New Amsterdam Theatre, NYC.
“Beautiful – The Carole King Musical” is an autobiographical story on the chart-topping 2015 Kennedy Center honoree then named Carol Klein. Information: Stephen Sondheim Theatre, 124 West 43rd Street, NYC.
Nene Leakes is one of the steady flow of actors making their debut on Broadway in Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb’s the Broadway musical “Chicago” at the Ambassador Theatre(219 West 49th Street, NYC).
Not by coincident, Jennifer Hudson takes on the role as Shug Avery in the touching-obstacle-riddled story “The Color Purple” based on Alice Walker’s novel. The return of the Broadway production has music and lyrics by Stephen Bray, Brenda Russell and Allee Willis. Information: Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th St., NYC.
