‘Immediate Family’ invited for Broadway Lights series

BLUMENTHAL PERFORMING ARTS

The comedy "Immediate Family," directed by Tony Award winner Phylician Rashad is part of the 2024-25 PNC Broadway Lights series.

A stage production that combines “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” and “Modern Family” is part of Blumenthal Arts 2024-25 PNC Broadway Lights series.

The comedy “Immediate Family,” written by “Hamilton’s” Paul Oakley Stovall and directed for the third time by Tony Award–winning actress and director Phylicia Rashad (Claire Huxtable in “The Cosby Show”) will take the stage July 29, 2025. For tickets and information, go to blumethalarts.org.

“Immediate Family” is a tale about the Bryant family is introduced to the middle son’s boyfriend, which raises the dysfunctional dynamic several notches. Race, sexual identity, and religion are explored in what amounts to a stage version of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “Modern Family.”

“This play has been a part of me for many years now and I'm ecstatic to have it take another step forward in Charlotte, at Blumenthal Arts especially which, in many ways, is becoming a new artistic home,” Stovall said.

“Continuing to work on it with Phylicia Rashad still on board as director is, to my mind, the only way to go. She understands me and she understands what’s at the root of the story. The characters in this play are all trying to hold their heads just a little higher, to find themselves and their place in the family; and Phylicia brings discipline, dignity, and determination to everything she does."

Stovall’s work is familiar to Charlotte theatergoers from the national tour of “Hamilton” as well as his concert “Love Rules” earlier this year. He also coproduced the 2022 Tony Award Best Musical winner “A Strange Loop,” and has even take television turns on “Shameless,” “Empire,” and “Chicago Fire.”

Immediate Family was featured at the Goodman Theatre and Mark Taper Forum, directed by Rashad. Stovall made his directorial debut to critical acclaim with the U.S. premiere stage adaptation of the film “Gods and Monsters,” which is based on the book by Christopher Bram.

“Blumenthal has the great fortune to be a draw to first-rate artists like Paul Oakley Stovall and the singular Phylicia Rashad,” Blumenthal president and CEO Tom Gabbard said. “We were wowed by the marvelous artistry that went into Paul’s concert, Love Rules, which we brought to the Stage Door Theater this year. It was a no-brainer that we wanted to produce another project together.”  

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