{"id":358765,"date":"2026-09-28T13:10:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358765\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:10:59","slug":"jessica-vosk-michael-luwoye-charlie-thurston-more-join-imitation-of-life-at-the-shed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358765\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Vosk, Michael Luwoye, Charlie Thurston, More Join Imitation of Life at The Shed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Additional casting has been revealed for\u00a0John Legend<\/a> and Lynn Nottage<\/a>‘s Imitation of Life<\/a> musical Off-Broadway. Presented as a co-production with the National Black Theatre<\/a>, the world premiere musical will play The Shed beginning November 21, 2026 with an official opening on Thursday, December 3, for a strictly limited 6-week engagement through Sunday, January 3, 2027.<\/p>\n

The musical\u2014featuring a book by Pulitzer winner Nottage (Sweat<\/a>) and a score by EGOT winner Legend, is adapted from Fannie Hurst<\/a>‘s 1933 novel and its two film adaptations, which center on two mothers\u2014one Black and one white\u2014raising daughters in 1920s and ’30s Atlantic City and New York. Whitney White<\/a> is directing. Warren will star as Delilah, with further casting to be revealed.<\/p>\n

Joining the previously announced Adrienne\u00a0Warren\u2014who is starring as Delilah\u2014will be Jessica Vosk<\/a>\u00a0as Bea,\u00a0Michael Luwoye<\/a> (Hamilton<\/a>) as Elroy, Charlie Thurston<\/a> (Liberation<\/a>) as Archie, Aleyse Shannon as Adult Peola,\u00a0Scarlett\u00a0London Diviney as Young Peola, and Lily Gilliam as Young Jessie. Further casting will be announced at a later date.<\/p>\n

Imitation of Life\u00a0will feature\u00a0feature scenic design by Tony Award winner Chloe Lamford<\/a> (Death of a Salesman), costume design\u00a0by Tony Award winner Qween Jean<\/a> (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), lighting design by eight-time Tony winner Natasha Katz<\/a> (MJ: The Musical),\u00a0sound design by Tony winner Gareth Owen<\/a> (MJ: The Musical), choreography by Baye & Asa, casting by The Telsey\u00a0Company, music supervision by Brandon Michael Nase, music direction by Ben Covello, and co-orchestrations by Tony\u00a0Award winners Bryan Carter<\/a> and Charlie Rosen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The work will mark the first musical written by singer-songwriter Legend, who became an EGOT winner in 2018 with his Tony win as a producer on Manhattan Theatre Club<\/a>‘s Jitney<\/a>. He also supplied a song to 2017’s SpongeBob SquarePants and starred in the title role of Jesus Christ Superstar for NBC’s 2018 live TV production.<\/p>\n

Nottage made her Broadway debut with 2017’s Pulitzer-winning and Tony-nominated Sweat. Her play Clyde’s<\/a> made a Broadway bow in 2021 via Second Stage Theater<\/a>, and she penned the book to the jukebox biomusical MJ The Musical<\/a>\u2014which continues its Broadway run.<\/p>\n

The musical is being presented as a co-production between The Shed and National Black Theatre, with producers also including Legend and Mike Jackson of Get Lifted Film Co., Tommy and Mudge of Crocodile Eyes, Universal Theatrical Group<\/a>, Sue Wagner<\/a>, John Johnson, and Mickey Liddell<\/a> and Pete Shilaimon<\/a> of LD Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For tickets and more information, visit TheShed.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Additional casting has been revealed for\u00a0John Legend and Lynn Nottage‘s Imitation of Life musical Off-Broadway. Presented as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-358765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}