When "Stick Fly" officially opens Thursday on Broadway, Atlanta director Kenny Leon will have managed the remarkable feat of having two plays running on the Great White Way at once.
By now, Atlantans are used to the many accomplishments of the multi-tasking director who opens plays seemingly as easily as some people pop beer tabs. Consider that while he's been in New York launching "Stick Fly" and "The Mountaintop" (the drama about the imagined last night of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett), back home his Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company opened "The Nativity: A Gospel Celebration" last weekend.
It's a sign of Leon's growing clout that “Stick Fly,” his sixth Broadway play, is about to open at the Cort Theatre. Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company gave Lydia R. Diamond’s play, which explores relationships among a well-to-do African-American family on Martha’s Vineyard, only its second full staging, in 2007 in Atlanta. Leon then helmed productions of it at Washington’s Arena Stage and Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company.
Broadway uber-producer Nelle Nugent told Leon she wanted to work with him and asked what he was excited about. "Stick Fly," he responded. Nugent brought in singer Alicia Keys as a producer, and Leon promptly asked her to compose the score. The cast includes Mekhi Phifer, Dulé Hill, Tracie Thoms and Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
Leon is excited to be able to direct a drama about upper-class African-Americans, saying by phone from New York, "We don’t hear that voice a lot." And he's enthused about Diamond's voice, too: "To write about class and race and sex all in the same play, and have that be humorous and inviting, that's pretty incredible."
Shortly after he opens "Stick Fly" on Thursday, Leon is heading home to support "Nativity," making a free post-performance appearance after the 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 13 show.
Written, directed and choreographed by Patdro Harris, with music direction by J. Michael, the family-friendly musical is a different version than the Langston Hughes one presented by True Colors previously. With the addition of contemporary songs and an apprentice cast joining veteran performers, Leon promises "a lot more youthful energy."
In general, the artistic director sounds more upbeat about True Colors, after cutting its schedule and staff this summer in response to the 10-year-old company's accumulated debt reaching $80,000. Board fund-raising has reduced that to roughly $20,000, making Leon more optimistic about the future.
Instead of a typical five-play season, True Colors will present two in 2011-12: "Nativity" and the world premiere of associate artistic director Todd Kreidler's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" in June at the Rialto Center for the Arts.
True Colors also plans to expand its August Wilson Monologue Competition, launched in 2007 as a way to expose a new generation to the seminal American playwright, to eight cities next year.
"We've re-imagined ourselves, and I couldn’t be happier," Leon said of his troupe. "Now it fits in exactly in terms of the the time we can give it be successful."
Coming Sunday in Living & Arts: Q&A with Kenny Leon on current projects from "Stick Fly" to his TV remake of "Steel Magnolias."
On stage
"The Nativity: A Gospel Celebration": Through Dec. 30 at Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road, Atlanta. Tickets, $20-$45, via 1-877-725-8849, www.ticketalternative.com. Kenny Leon appears in a free talk after the 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 13 show.
