I did not see the production 20 years ago. I think it’s the most perfect play I’ve ever read or been associated with. I have a relationship with this cast that’s great. I told them, “We could rehearse this for another year and still not get to the bottom of it,” still have more stuff. You cast two incredible stars in the lead roles.Ĭorey and Yahya are great artists. Everything about being a human being is contained in that play. It paints the beautiful, the ugly, the hard and the difficult.
To look at it through two Black men’s eyes, what better way to tell something about humanity in America at this time? I can’t think of a better, more thorough play. Stevie Wonder has that song, “Love’s in Need of Love Today.” That’s what I think about when I think of this play. This is the perfect play to reconnect us and remind us of the need for the love of humanity. I think for the last two years, we’ve been disconnected from each other. And it has nothing to do with 25 years ago it has to do with right now. That tells me the play is resonating with people’s lives today. If I stand outside watching people going into the Golden Theatre, I see a good mix, younger people than I see at most Broadway shows. Kenny Leon: I think the opinions of The New York Times are separate from the opinion that I respect most-the new generation of people coming into that theater. Leon, renowned for revivals of A Raisin in the Sun, A Soldier’s Play and Fences as well as originals like American Son and Smart People, spoke with EBONY about the chemistry between his leading men and his collaboration with Suzan-Lori Parks, as well as why "love's in need of love today."ĮBONY: The New York Times recently cited Topdog/Underdog as one of the greatest plays of the past 25 years. Updated with tunes by Kendrick Lamar (such as “The Heart Part 5”), while retaining some of its original music (Marvin Gaye’s prophetic “If I Should Die Tonight”), Topdog/Underdog shines for a new generation, reuniting on the post-pandemic Great White Way. In director Kenny Leon’s 2022 version, he brilliantly casts Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the loving, warring siblings. Jeffrey Wright and Yasiin Bey portrayed the roles in its original Broadway staging. Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ tale of two thirty-something brothers named Lincoln and Booth (named, clearly, for our 16th president and his assassinator) explores the dangers of dishonesty and the sweeping under-the-rug of evidence of things not seen. In this modern age of alternative facts and fibbing former presidents, a Broadway revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Topdog/Underdog arrives right on time.
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