July 4, 2025
Phylicia Rashad is set to direct “Immediate Family” in North Carolina.
Fresh off her Broadway play’s Tony win for Best Musical, Phylicia Rashad has been announced as the director for the regional premiere of Paul Oakley Stovall’s Immediate Family at North Carolina’s Blumenthal Arts.
The Tony Award-winning actress is reprising her role as director for the stage play, which is making its East Coast debut following successful runs at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and Los Angeles’s Mark Taper Forum, the latter helmed by Rashad herself, Playbill reported.
The play follows the Bryant family reunion, which is thrown into chaos when the middle son brings his boyfriend and tosses him into a slew of family dysfunction. Race, sexuality, and religion take center stage in this sharp-witted play that blends Modern Family with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
The play was written by Tony Award-winning multihyphenate Paul Oakley Stovall, the Olivier-nominated producer of A Strange Loop, and former George Washington in the first national tour of Hamilton. Rashad brings her decades of theater experience, two Tony Awards, numerous Emmy nominations, and a Theater Hall of Fame induction.
Her Broadway credits include standout performances as Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Aunt Ester in Gem of the Ocean, Violet Weston in August: Osage County, and roles in Into the Woods and Jelly’s Last Jam. She earned a Tony Award for her portrayal of Lena Younger in the acclaimed revival of A Raisin in the Sun.
As a director, Rashad has helmed productions of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, Fences, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, as well as Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.
The Blumenthal Arts cast of Immediate Family includes Christina Sajous as Evy, Elijah Jones as Jesse, Freddie Fulton as Tony, Andy Mientus as Kristian, Kai Almeda Heath as Nina, and Britney Coleman as Ronnie. Deon Releford-Lee, Samuel Douglas, Aigner Mizzelle, and Vanessa R. Butler are cast as standbys.
Theater enthusiasts can catch Immediate Family at the Blumenthal Arts Booth Playhouse from July 29 to Aug. 31. Tickets are available at BlumenthalArts.org.
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