Appropriate (play)

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Appropriate
AppropriateBwayPoster.jpg
Broadway Promotional Poster
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Date premiered2013
Place premiered Actors Theatre of Louisville
Original language English
SubjectDrama
SettingThe living room of a former plantation home in southeast Arkansas. Summer.

Appropriate is a dramatic play written by American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Contents

Synopsis

Appropriate follows the dysfunctional Lafayette family as they return to a decaying plantation mansion in Arkansas to battle over their recently deceased father's inheritance. Soon after the discovery of a relic buried deep in the recess of their family's past, decades of resentment burst through centuries of historical sin. [1]

Characters

Production history

Jenkins conceived the play through participation with the Vineyard Arts Project and the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab beginning in 2011. The play was first performed at Actors Theatre of Louisville in the Humana Festival of New American Plays. [2]

The play was next performed in Chicago at the Victory Gardens Theater and at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington D.C. in 2013. [3] [4]

Appropriate began previews Off-Broadway on February 25, 2014, in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center, New York. It had its opening night on March 16, 2014, playing a limited run to April 6. [5] Johanna Day was given the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for her performance.

The play premiered on the West Coast at Center Theatre Group in 2015. [6]

Appropriate opened at the Donmar Warehouse in London August 22, 2019, following previews from August 16. It played a limited run to October 5. [7] [8]

On June 15, 2023, Second Stage Theater announced that it would produce Appropriate at the Hayes Theater on Broadway as part of its 2023–2024 season with Lila Neugebauer as the director. [9] [10] Previews began on November 29, 2023, with the official opening on December 18, 2023. The show extended for a second time, concluding its run at the Hayes on March 3, 2024. Appropriate transferred to the Belasco Theatre on March 25, 2024 and is scheduled to run through June 23, 2024. The extended cast includes everyone except Elle Fanning, who was replaced by Ella Beatty, daughter of Warren Beatty, making her Broadway debut. [11] [12]

Original casts

CharacterLouisville [5] Off-Broadway [5] Los Angeles [5] London [8] Broadway [8]
20132014201520192023
Antoinette 'Toni' LafayetteJordan Baker Johanna Day Melora Hardin Monica Dolan Sarah Paulson
Franz LafayetteReese MadiganPatch DarraghRobert Beitzel Edward Hogg Michael Esper
River RaynerNatalie KuhnSonya HarumZarah MahlerTafline Steen Elle Fanning
Rhys ThurstonDavid Rosenblatt Mike Faist Will TranfoCharles FurnessGraham Campbell
Rachael Kramer-LafayetteAmy Lynn-Stewart Maddie Corman Missy YagerJaimi Barbakoff Natalie Gold
Ainsley Kramer-LafayetteGabe WeibleAlex DreierLiam Askew
Alexander Rodriguez
Orlando Roddy
Oliver Savell
Everett Sobers
Lincoln Cohen
Bo LafayetteLarry Bull Michael Laurence David Bishins Steven Mackintosh Corey Stoll
Cassidy Kramer-LafayetteLilli SteinIzzy Hanson-JohnstonGrace Kaufman Isabella Pappas Alyssa Emily Marvin

Awards and nominations

2024 Broadway debut

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResultRef.
2024
Drama League Awards Outstanding Revival of a PlayAppropriatePending [13]
Distinguished Performance Sarah Paulson Pending
Corey Stoll Pending
Outstanding Direction of a Play Lila Neugebauer Pending
Outer Critics Circle Awards Outstanding Revival of a PlayPending [14]
Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play Sarah Paulson Pending
Outstanding Direction of a Play (Broadway of Off-Broadway)Lila NeugebauerPending
Outstanding Scenic Design (Broadway or Off-Broadway)DotsPending

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References

  1. Appropriate play scriptaccessed 07-30-23
  2. Appropriate Louisville Humana Reviewaccessed 07-3023
  3. Victory Gardens Appropriateaccessed 07-30-23
  4. Theatre in DC Appropriateaccessed 07-30-23
  5. 1 2 3 4 Purcell, Carey (25 February 2014). "Johanna Day, Alex Dreier, Sonya Harum and More Are Appropriate for Signature Theatre, Starting Feb. 25". Playbill . Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  6. Center Theatre Group Appropriateaccessed 07/30/23
  7. Wood, Alex (2019-06-14). "Appropriate at Donmar Warehouse full cast joining Monica Dolan announced". WhatsOnStage.com . Retrieved 2022-08-27.
  8. 1 2 3 "APPROPRIATE". Donmar Warehouse . Retrieved 2022-08-27.
  9. Hall, Margaret (June 15, 2023). "Second Stage Will Give Branden Jacobs-Jenkins His Broadway Playwriting Debut This Fall With a New Production of Appropriate". Playbill. Retrieved June 29, 2023.
  10. "Second Stage Theater". 2st.com. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  11. Higgins, Molly. "Broadway's Appropriate Announces 2nd Extension, Transfer to Belasco Theatre" Playbill.com, February 13, 2024
  12. "2024 Drama League Award Nominations announced". Theatermania. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  13. "Dead Outlaw, Stereophonic Lead 2024 Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations". Theatermania. Retrieved April 23, 2024.