Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Opening Night: April 16, 2009
Closing: June 14, 2009
Theater: Belasco Theatre
The great migration of African-Americans from the farms of the South to the cities of the North is captured in this drama of folks passing through a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911. One of them is on a special quest, to find a mystical "Shining Man." When a threatening stranger arrives, he suspects his quest may be at an end.
READ THE REVIEWS:
April 16, 2010
"Great works of art often tote heavy baggage. Yet the revival of August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” a drama of indisputable greatness, feels positively airborne. Much of Bartlett Sher’s splendid production, which opened Thursday night at the Belasco Theater, moves with the engaging ease of lively, casual conversation."
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2009
"Lost souls populate "Joe Turner’s Come and Gone," August Wilson’s magical, mystical tale of early 20th-century displacement that Lincoln Center Theater has brought back to Broadway for the first time in more than two decades."
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2009
"No playwright understood better than August Wilson that freedom is, at least in part, a state of mind. And none of Wilson’s plays addressed the particular challenges faced by black Americans seeking it more directly or movingly than Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, now being revived by Lincoln Center Theater."
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April 16, 2009
"When the cast explodes into a rowdy Juba in "Joe Turner’s Come and Gone," their joyous, spirit-summoning dance suggests roots stretching back to African tribal movement and forward through tap and jazz right up to hip-hop. That same panoramic breadth is reflected in the characters themselves, their histories bound to the still-raw wounds of slavery while their hopes and destinies reach far into a future mapped out in ongoing struggle. August Wilson’s gift for storytelling has rarely been more beguiling than in this lyrical 1986 drama, and in his searing revival, director Bartlett Sher makes every note strong and true."
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April 16, 2009
"Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is the most lyrical drama in August Wilson’s monumental 10-play cycle about 20th century black life. It’s also the most passionate and religious."
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