Theater News

Gem of the Ocean to Shutter; Doubt Will Be Walter Kerr’s New Tenant

Phylicia Rashad in Gem of the Ocean(Photo © Carol Rosegg)
Phylicia Rashad in Gem of the Ocean
(Photo © Carol Rosegg)

August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean will end its run at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Sunday, February 6. According to a source close to the production, the theater’s next tenant will be John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, fresh from its sell-out Off-Broadway run at the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC).

Set in 1904, Gem of the Ocean is the ninth in Wilson’s series of plays chronicling the African-American experience in every decade of the 20th century. The Broadway production stars Phylicia Rashad, Anthony Chisholm, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and LisaGay Hamilton. At the time of its closing, the show will have played 15 previews and 72 regular performances.

Doubt, which will end its run at MTC’s City Center venue this weekend, stars Cherry Jones, Brían F. O’Byrne, Heather Goldenhersh, and Adriane Lenox. The play concerns a Catholic school principal who believes that a priest has been involved in an inappropriate relationship with one of his students.

The publicist for Doubt said that he had no information about the MTC production moving to the Kerr. Carol Shorenstein Hays is the lead producer of both Doubt and Gem of the Ocean.

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Gem of the Ocean

Closed: February 6, 2005