Off-Broadway’s The Whoopi Monologues, fresh off a July 13 opening night at Lincoln Center Theater, will get a new star next month, with Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country, Smoke) set to join the company beginning August 4. Smollett will succeed original star Kerry Washington, who takes her final bow in the production August 2.
The work sees five actors recreating solo monologues written and originally performed by the legendary Whoopi Goldberg, in her 1983 Broadway solo show Whoopi Goldberg and its 2004 follow-up Whoopi. Along with Washington, the cast features Kara Young, Kecia Lewis, Dominique Fishback, and Danielle Pinnock. Performances run at LCT’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater through August 30, with Whitney White (Liberation) at the helm.
See what critics had to say of the production here.
Understudies Kai Heath, Denise Manning, and Pavar Snipe round out the company.
Smollett will make her Off-Broadway debut with the production, but has previously appeared on stage in The Trip to Bountiful opposite Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams in a 2014 staging in Los Angeles. Her screen credits include The Order, The Burial, and We Grown Now.
The production features scenic design by Studio Bent’s Adam Rigg and Anton Volovsek, costume design by Qween Jean, lighting design by Cha See, sound design by Fan Zhang, video design by Hana S. Kim, and hair and wig design by Nikiya Mathis. Tiffany N. Robinson serves as stage manager.
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