Revival of "Purlie Victorious," starring Leslie Odom Jr., opens at Music Box Theatre
NEW YORK -- Wednesday marked the opening of "Purlie Victorious," starring Tony Award winner and Oscar nominee Leslie Odom Jr.
The play is a humorous look at a serious subject, racism, and it's back on Broadway for the first time in 62 years.
There is joy inside the Music Box Theatre, where Odom and Kara Young lead the cast in the revival of "Purlie Victorious." He's the self-proclaimed minister, philosopher, and freedom fighter with a questionable plan to claim an inheritance to buy a church in segregated Georgia.
"The sole consuming passion of his life, as he says, is to build right where that trauma took place. He wants to build right there in his community," Odom said of his character. "This is about a great American who uses these founding documents as the text inspiration for his sermons. He's using the United States Constitution. He's using the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights to preach."
This groundbreaking satire on racism was written by legendary actor and playwright Ossie Davis. It premiered on Broadway in 1961 and starred Davis and his wife, Ruby Dee.
In this revival, Young, a two-time Tony nominee and Harlem native, plays "Lutiebelle" a young woman who has spent her life working in the kitchen until she meets "Purlie."
"I feel like Lutiebelle represents so many women that have worked with their hands, who have been in the background, who haven't been seen," Young said. "I think that Ossie does this incredible job reeling you in and making you feel sometimes a little uncomfortable, and then the next line of the play is to make your laugh about why this is so absurd."
Director Kenny Leon said he wants audiences to lean in, laugh and think.
"It's told in a style that allows you to understand you're making fun of yourself to make a point, and I totally believe in the sophistication of American audiences," Leon said. "I have no doubt that audiences will hear the truth and laugh about it and think about it and go home and do something about it."
Noah Robbins portrays "Charlie," the son of the plantation owner, a role that was originated by Alan Alda.
"Unlike his father's, he has a real sense of decency about him and a real kind of moral clarity about the racist environment that he lives in," Robbins said of his character.
Vanessa Bell Calloway is "Idella," who works for Charlie's family.
"Idella is feisty. She's that woman that everybody needed because she ran their house. She kept it going. She was the glue," Calloway said.
This is Odom's first time back on Broadway since winning a Tony Award in 2016 as "Aaron Burr" in "Hamilton." In 2021, he received two Oscar nominations -- one for Best Supporting Actor in "One Night in Miami," and the second for Best Original Song for the movie. He said he's waited years to do "Purlie Victorious."
"Ossie Davis' 'Purlie Victorious' is a shining example of Black expression and the American spirit, the indomitable American spirit, and, more specifically, the Black American experience," Davis said.
"He wrote the truth 62 years ago, about the truth, 60 years in the future, and so, I get to present Ossie Davis' truth about us," Leon said.
"If anything, I can describe what Ossie Davis has written as like a gospel for humanity," Young added.
The play was also turned into a movie, "Gone Are the Days," which starred the original Broadway cast, and Davis wrote a stage musical version "Purlie" that opened on Broadway in 1970.