Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Opening Night: April 25, 2026
Theater: Barrymore Theatre
Website: joeturnerbway.com
Set in Pittsburgh in 1911 during a pivotal era of migration and transformation, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone centers on Seth and Bertha Holly (Cedric and Henson) who run a warm, orderly boardinghouse for those navigating uncertain paths. But when a mysterious man named Herald Loomis (Boone) arrives with his young daughter, the stillness of the house begins to shift. This timeless American classic is a profoundly moving story of personal awakening, collective memory, and the quiet power of human connection.
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April 25, 2026
So whatever my quibbles, you must try to see “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” because this one play is the key to Wilson’s deep mystery, which is, in itself, the key to the American theater. And while there are a few unsteady performances, there’s also at least one triumphant, gravity-altering one, delivered right at the end of the play.
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April 25, 2026
Contemplative in tone, it is certainly one of Wilson’s quieter works. Yet the play probably shouldn’t feel like an extended chill-out session, as it frequently does in Debbie Allen’s new Broadway staging. Softness slides into sleepiness in this unremarkable revival, now at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, which never comes to life despite several intriguing performances.
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April 25, 2026
Regardless, there’s plenty here to ensure that audiences will recognize the preeminence of Wilson’s writing, even without flawless execution of the play’s slow-burn tension. Cedric and Henson each bring the right mix of salty edge and tender gravity to their scenes together. While Seth and Bertha don’t have much room to grow in the play, Henson is especially gifted at suggesting the emotional history of a woman who’s learned to balance strategic self-effacement with wistfulness.
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April 25, 2026
Bursting with heart and humor, the production showcases all of the intricacies and beauty of Black American life, the never-ending costs of slavery, racism and discrimination and how Black people flourish and move forward despite it all.
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April 25, 2026
Rare is the Broadway season that hasn’t been bettered by an August Wilson revival, and this very busy spring is no exception. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, lovingly and astutely directed by Debbie Allen with a no-weak-link cast headed by Taraji P. Henson (in a superb Broadway debut), Cedric The Entertainer and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, is nothing less than a full-on reminder of Wilson’s singular genius for blending naturalism with more-things-in-heaven-and-earth marvels.
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April 25, 2026
You can keep going — Wilson’s poetry is richly layered, a dramaturgy of abundant significance. The roots are deep, the canopy wide, and the song in the leaves, especially in the hands of an ensemble like this one, always worth rehearing.
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Allen’s staging doesn’t match the fine work she’s drawn from her actors, who are mostly confined to the kitchen table far stage left. This leaves the rest of the house – a cozy living room and a stairway that seems to climb toward heaven – frustratingly unexplored. (The set design, by longtime Wilson collaborator David Gallo, does handsomely capture the play’s twilight zone; its well-appointed rooms against a black backdrop that reveals a terrifying and exciting industrial world.)
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April 25, 2026
Almost without fail, the brilliance of August Wilson emerges even in mediocre stagings of his plays. That is the unshakable feeling at the revival of his “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” that opened Saturday night at the Barrymore Theatre. You’re never less than pleased you’ve come, and yet you’re constantly aware that something’s gone.
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April 25, 2026
There are many wonderful exchanges as these seekers clash and sometimes connect. Even the small talk feels epic, and it all leads up to a searing climax that I recalled vividly from the last Broadway revival in 2009. It’s just as powerful in this production: a stunning depiction of reconciliation, reckoning and release that makes Joe Turner impossible to shake.
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April 25, 2026
This “Joe Turner” production is one of the season’s best. Loomis’ entrance and other memorable moments owe much to David Gallo’s set, Paul Tazewell’s costume, Stacey Derosier’s lighting and Steve Bargonetti’s original music.
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Inhabited by this talented ensemble, it feels like each one of these characters could step off the stage into real life with the snap of a finger. But none more so than Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Bynum Walker, the anchor of the narrative. The play opens with Seth and Holly discussing his odd ways behind his back, and at first he appears to be a loony old man. But as the audience gets to know him, the more it seems that Bynum is the only character who has it all figured out. Santiago-Hudson’s performance is real, grounded, and a true joy to experience. And it all contributes to the tapestry of this production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone: rich, complex, deliberately unhurried (though perhaps a tad too long), and full of deeply layered performances.
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Harold, fated to wander like Odysseus or the mythological Wandering Jew, is a fictional creation, like almost all of Wilson’s characters, but he has representative magnitude, just like Willy Loman. What a treat to have both of these very different revivals opening on Broadway in a matter of days. One heck of a revelatory American double bill, if you can find the time one weekend.
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Joe Turner’s Come and Gone has landed on Broadway for the third time since its 1989 New York City premiere. A critical success but commercial failure upon its original Broadway production, August Wilson’s rich and complex play has received a generally laudable revival, directed by Debbie Allen and featuring a superb cast, that captures the play’s emotional and stylistic nuances even while suffering from occasional missteps.
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Bynum is the emotional anchor of the play, and one of Wilson’s most richly drawn characters, and there’s no better interpreter of the playwright’s words than Santiago-Hudson: In 1996, he won a featured-actor Tony Award for Seven Guitars; he starred in Gem of the Ocean on Broadway in 2004; in 2012, he directed a remarkable off-Broadway revival of The Piano Lesson; in 2017, he helmed the long-awaited Broadway premiere of Jitney; in 2013, he performed the autobiographical How I Learned What I Learned, which Wilson wrote for himself. His turn as Bynum is a performance for the ages, and one that elevates every actor in his orbit.
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