Tarell Alvin McCraney has had a great couple of years. Not only did his unpublished play Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue get adapted into a movie, but that movie became the Oscar winner for Best Film.
After that, McCraney became the chair of the playwriting department at the Yale School of Drama, which is considered one of the top theatre grad schools in the country. Then he also signed on to write the live-action musical Cyrano the Moor for Disney and co-executive produce a drama series for the OWN channel.
But that’s not all. Now, a play of McCraney’s is going to Broadway.
Playbill reports that Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy has been picked up to be produced during the 2018-2019 season.
The drama, which is partly musical, was originally commissioned by the Manhattan Theatre club and opened off-Broadway in 2013.
The story follows five young black men at a boarding school. The five participate in a gospel choir, hence the part musical aspect, and the passionate young leader deals with the intersections of being gay, being an academic leader, being religious, and being black.
All that inner conflict is enough as is, but he also has to deal with homophobic classmates and a spiteful headmaster.
If you’re interested in checking out the play, previews begin on December 27 of this year and the show officially opens on January 22, 2019.
