As you can imagine, Broadway has been hit hard by the pandemic with shows closed for months and likely to remain so until next summer at the earliest. So how did this show come to be? The host, Tiny Fey, certainly had a lot to do with it.

Not only has she starred in two hit shows for NBC (Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock), she is also the writer of the book for the musical, Mean Girls, based on the 2004 film she wrote and starred in along with Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. The musical was still running when Broadway was shut down.

Amongst the musicals being represented in One Night Only are Ain’t Too Proud–The Life and Times of The Temptations, Chicago, Jagged Little Pill, Diana: The Musical, Jersey Boys, Mean Girls and Rent.

Diana: The Musical has yet to open on Broadway. Rent hasn’t been on Broadway since 2008. Jersey Boys is off-Broadway after concluding its Broadway run. The latter two shows remain amongst the most popular shows of all-time.

Cast members from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will also appear.

Joining Fey in the two-hour broadcast are Annaleigh Ashford (Sunday in the Park with George), Antonio Banderas (A Chorus Line in Spain), Lance Bass (Hairspray), Kristen Bell (The Crucible), Kelly Clarkson, Brett Eldredge, Jesse Tyler Ferguson (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Sutton Foster (Anything Goes), Peter Gallagher (On the Twentieth Century), Josh Groban (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), Jake Gyllenhaal (Sunday in the Park with George), Sean Hayes (Promises, Promises), Ron Cephas Jones (Of Mice and Men), Patti LaBelle, Nathan Lane (The Producers), Camryn Manheim (Spring Awakening), Rob McClure (Mrs. Doubtfire), Alanis Morissette (Jagged Little Pill), Jerry O’Connell (A Soldier’s Play), Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), Mary-Louise Parker (The Sound Inside), Billy Porter (Kinky Boots), John Stamos (Bye Bye Birdie), Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl), Aaron Tveit (Moulin Rouge – The Musical), Blair Underwood (A Soldier’s Play), Vanessa Williams (Into the Woods) and Susan Kelechi Watson (A Naked Girl on the Appian Way).

The show will raise funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

One Night Only: The Best of Broadway airs at 8:00 PM local times.

The post One Night Only: The Best of Broadway appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The setting is Louisiana during the second World War. When a black sergeant is murdered an investigation is triggered. Overseeing the investigation is a black lawyer. Because this is part of a segregated regiment, it is assumed that the KKK was behind the murder. It is 1944, this is in the Jim Crow South.

Starring in this production are David Alan Grier (who appeared in the play during its first production), Blair Underwood and Jerry O’Connell. Nnamdi Asomugha takes on the role originally played by Washington.

Directing this production of A Soldier’s Play is Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the  Sun – 2014).

When  I interviewed actor Steven Anthony Jones, currently on tour in August Wilson’s Jitney, I asked him about A Soldier’s Play. He was in the original cast. This is what he had to say:

“The play has stood the test of time and will continue to stand the test of time because it is a period piece and a murder mystery. It deals with issues of race and color, but those are not the driving things within the plot. It will stand the test of time because it is such a good tight drama. Audiences will be as thrilled by it as they were the first time.”

A Soldier’s Play runs 1 hour and 50 minutes including a 15-minute intermission.

For tickets go here.

Photo: Jerry O’Connell and Blair Underwood in A Soldier’s Play (Photo by Joan Marcus/Courtesy of Polk PR)

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