American Son may be closing on Broadway on Sunday, but this isn’t the end of the road for the play or its cast.
On Tuesday morning, Netflix announced that it is adapting the hit 2018 play, with Scandal‘s Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale (The Good Wife), Jeremy Jordan (Supergirl), and Eugene Lee (A Soldier’s Play) reprising their roles from the current Broadway production.
Written by Christopher Demos-Brown, the entire play takes place inside a Miami police station and delves into issues of race, identity, class, and police violence. Washington and Pasquale star as an estranged couple who are looking for answers about their missing 18-year-old son, and Jordan and Lee play the officers they interact with.
“I felt like I knew these characters, but I’d never seen them, particularly [her character] Kendra, before,” Washington told EW in November, as she explained what attracted her to this play so soon after her hit ABC drama ended. “I wanted to help bring her to life because I loved the idea of her being a part of our theatrical canon. I wanted her story to be told.”
She added: “[The story] is timely, but also I think it’s been part of the historic DNA of what it is to be an African-American mother, just to worry for the safety of your child…Part of all mothering is the lack of control over this other human being who, once they’re outside your body, makes their own decisions and has their own dangers. But there’s the added layer of powerlessness as a black mother because of the institutionalized racism and the cultural practices that endanger black children.”
This isn’t the first time Netflix has got involved with a Broadway production. In the fall, the streamer added Bruce Springsteen’s show Springsteen on Broadway to its library after it finished its year-long run in New York.
Tony Award winner Kenny Leon will return to direct and produce the Netflix adaptation, which will also include Jeffrey Richards and Rebecca Gold as producers. Washington and her EVP Development and Production Pilar Savone will also produce under Washington’s banner Simpson Street.
Production begins in New York this February.
Related content:
- Kerry Washington stars in Broadway’s thoughtful, tension-filled American Son: EW review
- Kerry Washington on her intense, timely new Broadway role
- Watch the trailer for Netflix’s Springsteen on Broadway special
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