Audra McDonald will return to Broadway to star in Adrienne Kennedy’s “Ohio State Murders.”
This production will mark the Broadway debut for Kennedy, an award-winning playwright who has been writing for theater for six decades. Kenny Leon, director of “A Soldier’s Play” and “American Son,” will direct the production.
The production is in development and has not yet announced Broadway dates.
McDonald starred in a virtual reading of the play, directed by Leon, on Jeffrey Richards’ “Spotlight on Plays” platform this summer. The producing team for the Broadway production is led by Richards, Rebecca Gold, Jayne Baron Sherman and Irene Gandy.
In “Ohio State Murders,” McDonald plays Suzanne Alexander, a Black writer who returns to Ohio State University to speak about the violent imagery in her writing. This leads to a larger examination of racism and its impact on the U.S.
McDonald returns to Broadway after starring in “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” in 2019. The six-time Tony Award winner has also starred in “Shuffle Along,” “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” “Master Class” and “Ragtime.”
The play was commissioned by Great Lakes Theater Festival and published in 1992. It premiered in New York in 2007 at Theater for a New Audience.
Kennedy’s other works include the Obie-Award winning plays “Funnyhouse of a Negro,” “June and Jean in Concert” and “Sleep Deprivation Chamber.”
