Gooding, Jr., Vanessa Williams join Cicely Tyson in Broadway’s ‘Bountiful’

Gooding, Jr., Vanessa Williams join Cicely Tyson in Broadway’s ‘Bountiful’

By EURweb

     Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Williams and Condola Rashad have signed on to join Cicely Tyson in the Broadway revival of  The Trip to Bountiful, Horton Foote’s play about an elderly woman’s determination to make one final journey back to her childhood home in small-town Texas.

Previews begin March 31 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Directed by Michael Wilson, it is scheduled for a limited 14-week engagement, with official opening set for April 23.

            While the play — including its television and film incarnations — traditionally has been performed with such actresses as Lillian Gish, Geraldine Page and Lois Smith in the central role of Carrie Watts, this production casts the woman and her family as African American characters.

            A best supporting actor Oscar winner for “Jerry Maguire,” Gooding will make his professional stage debut in the production. He will next be seen on screen in Robert Rodriguez’s “Machete Kills” and Lee Daniels’ “The Butler.”

            Williams, who is coming off of ABC’s “666 Park Avenue,” counts among her previous Broadway credits the musicals “Into the Woods,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “Sondheim on Sondheim.”

            Rashad (the daughter of veteran actress Phylicia Rashad) first turned heads Off Broadway in Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-winning drama Ruined. She earned a Tony nomination this year for her Broadway debut in Lydia R. Diamond’s Stick Fly and was recently featured in Lifetime’s African American remake of “Steel Magnolias.”