James Earl Jones leads all-black cast of 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'

Arts and Culture

The Tennessee Williams play opens with an all-black cast.

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opened on Broadway this week, with an all black cast led by (from left) Anika Noni Rose, Terrence Howard, Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones. Rose is an experienced Broadway actress, but you may remember her as the other "Dreamgirl" with Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce.

Rashad receives an enthusiastic response from the audience. She was most recently seen on Broadway in "Cymbeline" late last year.

Howard makes his Broadway debut as Brick, the tortured husband of Tennessee Williams' play.

Debbie Allen directed the Broadway revival, in which James Earl Jones played Big Daddy. This is the fifth staging since the original play in 1955.

Allen congratulates her sister Phylicia Rashad.

Other famous faces in the audience included Atlantans Hank Aaron and wife Billye ...

... filmmaker Spike Lee and wife Tonya ...

... Allen with her son, Norman Nixon Jr. ...

... Miss America 2008, Kirsten Haglund ...

No. 3: Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. sells his label to MCA Records in 1988 for $60 million -- mere pennies compared to other record-company sales around that time.

... and Tonya Pinkins. Pinkins, a Broadway actress who's also appeared on "All My Children," was a castmate of Rose's in the Tony Award-winning "Caroline, or Change."

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"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opened on Broadway this week, with an all black cast led by (from left) Anika Noni Rose, Terrence Howard, Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones. Rose is an experienced Broadway actress, but you may remember her as the other "Dreamgirl" with Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce.

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