‘PURPOSE’: (left to right) LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Glenn Davis, Kara Young & Jon Michael Hill. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

PURPOSE
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Phylicia Rashad
Through August 31, 2025
The Helen Hayes Theater
240 W 44th St.
https://purposeonbroadway.com/

By Scott Harrah

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play last year with the hit dysfunctional-family drama Appropriate. Now, he’s scored with another engrossing blockbuster about a toxic family, Purpose.

The story focuses on the famous Jaspers, an influential, affluent African-American family in Chicago. The Jaspers are renowned for their political influence and religion. Patriarch Solomon “Sonny” Jasper (Harry Lennix) is a former Civil Rights leader who now works as a pastor and beekeeper. He and his affable but tough-as-nails wife Claudine (LaTanya Richardson Jackson) have both helped the Jasper family make a good name for themselves, and they will do anything to maintain their respectable image. Claudine has a law degree, but she doesn’t really practice law and instead works as a socialite for human rights and various Black causes.

Meet the Jasper family

Purpose unfolds with narrator Nazareth or “Naz” Jasper (Jon Michael Hill) as he just returned home from New York with uninvited friend Aziza (Kara Young).  Naz is the youngest son and has dropped out of divinity school. He explains the family’s many shortcomings and the conflicts that ultimately result when everyone gets together for a reunion.

The play has ongoing themes of social prominence, social and racial justice, identity and faith. The story is not exactly anything new or original, but it rings with veracity and reality regardless.

Highbrow soap opera

The story unfurls like a highbrow soap opera as we meet the many troubled and flawed family members.

First, there’s Junior (Glenn Davis), the older son and politician who has just been released from prison after being convicted of mismanaging campaign funds. His fashionable wife Morgan (Alana Arenas) is in trouble and will soon do time behind bars for helping her husband with his crime.

The other character, Aziza, is not a family member. She’s the high-spirited, earthbound outsider from Harlem and is initially impressed by meeting the famous Jasper clan, but she soon learns the family is not as glamorous as they seem.

Dysfunctional dinner

Sparks fly when everyone sits down to dinner and Junior starts talking about incarceration reform. Sonny is not pleased that his oldest son has little interest in carrying on his legacy. The father is also unhappy that Naz has decided to become a nature photographer instead of a pastor.

When questions about Naz’s sexuality are raised, Aziza reveals that she is hoping to have a child with him, but marriage is not in the plans because she only wants Naz as a sperm donor. It would be unfair to reveal anymore because what’s most enjoyable about Purpose is hearing all the juicy secrets the family members reveal though arguing, complete with razor-sharp dialogue that is crisp, biting and often hilarious in a dark way.

Lies & deceit

The story is about the lies and deceit famous families spin, all to keep up appearances and maintain good PR in the media. The Jaspers could be the African-American Kennedys, and Sonny is a composite of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Dr. King’s portrait hangs prominently in the Jaspers’ living room) and countless other Civil Rights leaders.

Seamless direction & great cast

The show has so many good elements, from the outstanding scenic design of Todd Rosenthal to Phylicia Rashad’s seamless direction. Ms. Rashad gets great performance from everyone in the gifted cast.

Harry Lennix is perfect as Solomon, with his imposing voice and command of the stage. LaTanya Richardson Jackson is equally powerful as his scheming and manipulative wife, Claudine.

Jon Michael Hill is best known for his roles on the network TV shows “Elementary,” “Detroit 1-8-7,” “Law and Order: SVU” and the HBO series “Eastbound and Down.” As a stage actor, he is first-rate, acting as both narrator and the youngest member of the Jasper family. His scenes between his father Solomon and with older brother Junior are consistently convincing and sublime.

Superb supporting cast

Supporting cast members are all excellent as well. Glenn Davis is always riveting as the failed politician Junior. As long-suffering wife Morgan, Alana Arenas gives a knockout performance. Her shouting match at the dinner table is one of the show’s highlights, and she commands instant respect—and fear—when she has a meltdown.

Tony Award winner Kara Young (who won Best Actress for a Featured Role in a Play for Purlie last year) proves she’s a rising star to keep watching on Broadway. Ms. Young manages to make her character Aziza one of the only sane people in the show. She also has some of the best lines and dialogue, delivering them with aplomb and getting many laughs from the audience.

The play was originally produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, and Purpose deserves a decent run on Broadway. It’s an insightful, sometimes over-the-top but never dull evening of family drama at its best.

Published March 24, 2025
Reviewed at press performance on March 20, 2025

‘PURPOSE’: Jon Michael Hill & Harry Lennix. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

‘PURPOSE’: Jon Michael Hill & Glenn Davis. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

‘PURPOSE’: Kara Young. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

‘PURPOSE’: Jon Michael Hill. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

‘PURPOSE’: LaTanya Richardson Jackson. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

‘PURPOSE’: Alana Arenas & Kara Young. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

‘PURPOSE’: Harry Lennix. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

‘PURPOSE’: Jon Michael Hill, Kara Young & Harry Lennix. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

‘PURPOSE’: Glenn Davis & LaTanya Richardson. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

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‘APPROPRIATE’: (Left to right) Michael Esper, Elle Fanning, Natalie Gold, Alyssa Emily Marvin, Corey Stoll & Sarah Paulson. Photo: Joan Marcus.

APPROPRIATE
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
Through June 23, 2024
Belasco Theatre
111 West 44th Street
https://appropriateplay.com/

By David NouNou

What family doesn’t have its ups and downs? The Lafayette family is steeped in it. Three siblings and their families come down to rural Arkansas to settle their deceased father’s dilapidated estate, only to come down and find out and get more than they bargained for. The spelling of “appropriate” has two definitions: one can be what is proper behavior when you come down to settle an estate, the other definition is to take something for your own; like a trust fund or mutual property.

Late at night, Frank (Michael Esper) or Franz as his girlfriend, River (Elle Fanning) has renamed him have just broken into the house that belonged to his father. They arrive a bit early for the estate sale that is going to take place. However, his oldest sibling, Toni (Sarah Paulson) has arrived even earlier with her son, Rhys (Graham Campbell). Toni is in a frenzy due to the fact that Frank hasn’t been in touch with the family for over 10 years or attended the funeral of their dad, but he is here now and why. Middle brother, Bo (Corey Stoll) has also arrived with his wife Rachel (Natalie Gold) and their two children, Cassidy (Alyssa Emily Marvin) and Ainsley (Lincoln Cohen) from D.C.

If you are familiar with Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County you will notice a few similarities. These siblings all have backstories and plenty of baggage and recriminations. The first act is constructed and directed flawlessly. It starts with while packing and putting things away, a photo album is discovered which unleashes a torrent of revelations. Starting with racism, antisemitism, drugs, alcoholism, insults, finger pointing, pedophilia and a little bit of fascination between cousins, this family is toxic. More should not be revealed to the reader who hopefully and ultimately will be a viewer. This show plays like a jigsaw puzzle. Your allegiance to each character keeps shifting throughout the first act. Each time you are steered in one direction, you are quickly jolted into another. That is the purpose of a good show; it keeps the audience engaged and constantly guessing.

Act I ends on a brilliant cliffhanger. Act II begins meandering from the onset. It gets mired in further toxicity about the family and in a lot of cases the action seems contrived and doesn’t flow as easily as it did in Act I. The screwups become repetitious, and this is where playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and director Lila Neugebauer should have collaborated more tightly. They had one of the most brilliant endings in Broadway history about a boy coming down a staircase; instead, they chose to keep trudging along.

Where Ms. Neugebauer does succeed is in her direction of this great ensemble cast, headed by Sarah Paulson. Ms. Paulson’s performance is a tour de force: from her manic entrance, to her emotional breakdown, and her resolution, she thrills throughout. She sets the bar high, and her co-stars Corey Stoll, Michael Esper, Elle Fanning and Natalie Gold are on their toes matching her in riveting performances. The performances of these five actors weave a disturbing tapestry of a dysfunctional family and are compelling throughout the show.

This is one of the season’s must-see shows. The show was set to close on March 3, 2024. It will be on hiatus for about three weeks, and will reopen at the larger Belasco Theatre on March 25, 2024 and run through June 30, 2024.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published February 24, 2024
Reviewed at February 22, 2024 press performance.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Michael Esper, Corey Stoll & Sarah Paulson. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Alyssa Emily Marvin & Elle Fanning. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Michael Esper & Elle Fanning. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Natalie Gold & Corey Stoll. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Sarah Paulson. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: (left to right) Julian Robertson, Roslyn Ruff & Paige Gilbert. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH
Written by Thornton Wilder
With additional material by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz
Through May 29, 2022
Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont
150 West 65th Street
(800)331-0472, https://www.lct.org/

By Scott Harrah

Thornton Wilder’s 1942 Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Skin of Our Teeth was last revived on Broadway in 1955. It has not been produced in 67 years for numerous reasons. The epic is not nearly as accessible or universal as Our Town and is thorny and awkward in nature.  The story is a three-act saga of the ultimate survival of humanity and the Androbus family, married for 5,000 years and living in Excelsior, New Jersey. The story takes us from the Ice Age to Atlantic City in the 1920s to the end of an unspecified war and is convoluted indeed. It touches on everything from the Bible to technology to natural disasters and the environment.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has updated the story with new material since this production features a multi-ethnic cast, with the help of director Lileana Blain-Cruz. For example, sassy maid Sabina (Gabby Beans)—in a role originated by the late Tallulah Bankhead in 1942—starts out the show by breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience, but she talks about how she’s been in several August Wilson plays.

In Act One, a composite of the early 20^th century, Mrs. Antrobus (Roslyn Ruff) is in her New Jersey home with her children, Gladys (Paige Gilbert) and Henry (Julian Robertson). It is August but the entire Northeast of the USA is contending with a wall of ice that is moving south from Canada. Mr. Antrobus (James Vincent Meredith) is the inventor of everything from the lever, the wheel, multiplication tables and the alphabet. Refugees start arriving at the Antrobus home, all wanting food.  Some of the arriving refugees include Moses, the prophet Homer and Greek Muses. We also see one of the play’s highlights: Huge animated puppets of a dinosaur and a woolly mammoth that will remind many of the gorgeous horse puppets in a far superior Lincoln Center show a decade ago, War Horse.

Act Two takes place in 1920s Atlantic City, depicting a convention as well as a seaside carnival midway on the famous Boardwalk. Mr. Antrobus is being sworn in as president of “the Ancient and Honorable Order of Mammals, Subdivision Humans.”  Sabina appears as a conniving beauty pageant queen, trying to steal Mr. Antrobus away from his wife and family.  A gypsy fortune teller (Broadway veteran Priscilla Lopez) warns everyone about a storm about to hit the shoreline. Her prophecy comes true as a hurricane arrives, the story takes a biblical turn and family members start taking pairs of animals onto a large ship reminiscent of Noah’s Ark, indicating the world is ending.

Act Three is the play’s most confusing section.  We are back at the Antrobus home in New Jersey, but everything has been decimated by an unspecified war. The two Antrobus women have survived by hiding in a cellar and Gladys now has a baby. George Antrobus has been away fighting the war. Henry returns as a general, having fought on the opposite side.

All three acts are introduced with a “News of the World” newsreel, a clever touch by projectionist Hannah Wasileski.

Perhaps Thornton Wilder’s themes are meant to show us the resilience of humans through natural and man-made disasters. However,  what is presented here, with all the tweaks by director Lileana Blain-Cruz and playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, is all ultimately a more confusing night of theater.  While it was ambitious even attempting to update this monster of a play, the end result is a slog to sit through for most audiences. There are some occasionally funny moments and two noteworthy standouts. Newcomer Gabby Beans is a spunky delight as maid Sabina, and Priscilla Lopez shines as the fortune teller, with her lively performance.  The dinosaur and woolly mammoth puppets steal the show in Act One, and Adam Rigg’s sets are consistently impressive, but this production of The Skin of Our Teeth is too long and lugubrious to be palatable in the 21^st century.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 3, 2022
Reviewed at May 1, 2022 press performance.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: (left to right) Roslyn Ruff, Julian Robertson, Paige Gilbert & James Vincent Meredith. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: The cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: Priscilla Lopez. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: The cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: James Vincent Meredith & cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: Gabby Beans. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

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