The first show of the new Broadway season is the first-ever revival of a modern American classic. And as Time Out New York hails, “Welcome back, Home. You’ve been missed!”
This powerfully uplifting adventure by the late Samm-Art Williams and staged by Kenny Leon (“Broadway’s most essential director,” says The Chicago Tribune), is “beautiful, moving, and very funny (The Daily Beast).
Three actors “deliver astronomical performances” (Amsterdam News), portraying over 40 characters and capturing Broadway’s heart and soul, as they take you on a 90-minute journey with a North Carolina farmer who travels to the city and back, holding true to his faith, his spirit, and his long-lost love. “Home’s return is nothing short of a cause for celebration,” says the New York Sun.
"Welcome Back, HOME. You've been missed." -Time Out New York
“A lovely and richly poetic play. Home is emblematic of what so many of us seek from time at the theater” Chicago Tribune
“A top-notch production that serves as a fitting and heartfelt tribute to the author.” - Deadline
The revivals that Kenny Leon has directed on Broadway form something like a syllabus of modern African-American drama, from Loraine Hansberry to August Wilson to Suzan-Lori Parks. Last season, that project brought him to Purlie Victorious, in which a Black man travels to his birthplace in the South to reclaim his place there in triumph; now Leon follows it with a play in which a different rural homecoming seems less happy, at least at first. But don’t give up too fast: Home, after all, is where the heart is.
It may take a while for audiences to tune in to the play’s rollicking rhythms. Mr. Williams’s language is a dense, clipped, sometimes incantatory vernacular that can be hard to parse, particularly when flung at dizzying velocity in the early going. Trying to appreciate the language’s richness and lyricism is challenging enough; teasing out the thread of the narrative from the onrushing tides of words seems at times nearly impossible, especially as the chronology jumps back and forth. While one can appreciate the desire to bring heated life to Mr. Williams’s vigorous language, which almost seems to prefigure rap, Mr. Leon would have been wise to allow a few pauses for everyone to breathe.
1970 | Broadway |
Broadway |
2024 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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