Yahoo News ‘Home’ Director Kenny Leon Talks Play’s Broadway Revival and Teases Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in Upcoming ‘Othello’
On Wednesday night, the cast and crew of “Home” welcomed the Tony-winning play back to Broadway for the first time since 1979 at the Todd Haimes Theatre.
“Home” is directed by Tony-winner Kenny Leon and was written by playwright Samm-Art Williams. It follows the life of Cephus Miles, a man who is searching for a place to belong and call his own home — and the people to share it with. The play includes a three-person cast of Tory Kittles as Miles and Brittany Inge and Stori Ayers, who both play multiple characters throughout the show. The production marks the trio’s Broadway debuts.
More from Variety
Just a few days before the first showing of previews, Williams passed away. “None of us are going to get out of here alive and [Williams] knew that more than anyone,” Leon told Variety on the opening night red carpet. “When he writes a play about returning to home, returning to love, that was with the understanding that he knew that life is short — art is long. So we get to extend the art a little longer than one life.”
When Leon was 17 years old he saw a regional production of “Home” in Atlanta starring Samuel L. Jackson and that experience sparked his love for the play.
Leon says he made no changes to the original script because “that’s what a great revival does.” He continued, “It’s like when you say ‘Death of a Salesman’ is great or ‘The Glass Menagerie’ or ‘Hamlet’ — they’re great. You don’t have to change much but you conceptualize them. You say ‘What does it mean to an audience now? How do you put in a subtext that’s meaningful for us now? How do we move the rhythm in a different energy?'”
Kittles says he would describe the play as a “life affirming poem… it’s a journey, its a struggle with three actors playing over 40 characters, and there are no bells and whistles were completely exposed up there.”
Kittles has had a long-standing collaborative relationship with Leon, he read for Leon’s 2010 production of “Fences” with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis but didn’t get the role. However, Leon later hired him for his movie, a “Steel Magnolias” remake with Queen Latifah.
Additionally, Ayers has also worked with Leon before, but as an intern at his theater in 2009. When she heard about the project, she emailed Leon and auditioned for the show in January.
Ayers says what “Home” means to her is that it “reminds us that we’re never alone, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.”
“I’m so grateful and thankful that I get to be the one to pass [Williams] work on,” Leon adds. He hopes that with “Home” being back on Broadway more high schools, community theaters or regional theaters will share the story.
Leon also teased that his next play “Othello” starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal will be set in 2030. “It’s in the near future, it’s not so far in the past that it feels old, and he’s not so far now that we think we have to include everything that’s in our lives now,” Leon says.
He went on to say, “I’m excited, I want to see Denzel and Jake together. We’re sitting in the palm of the universe, Denzel is the exact age, it’s the exact time for him to do it and it’s the exact time for Jake to do it. It’s the exact time for ‘Othello’ to happen, that doesn’t happen a lot when all of this comes together at the right time.”
Leon also confirms that the casting will finish this week. The play will debut at the Shubert Theatre in spring 2025.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
