Theater News

Jazz Legend Wynton Marsalis to Bring Cotton Club Parade To Broadway in Fall 2013

After two hit runs at Encores!’ New York City Center, the swinging jazz and blues tuner featuring Duke Ellington will hit Broadway.

Kimberly Kaye
New York City
A scene from <i>Cotton Club Parade</i> at New York City Center.
A scene from Cotton Club Parade at New York City Center.
(© Joan Marcus)
Cotton Club Parade, the musical revue conceived by Jack Viertel, will debut on Broadway this coming fall. No theater, casting or dates have been released at this time. Warren Carlyle, who helmed the show at New York City Center, returns to as director-choreographer.

Cotton Club Parade celebrates jazz icon Duke Ellington’s years at the famed Harlem nightclub of the same name. Set in the 1920s and 30s, when the “joint” was jumping with shows featuring big band swing and blues music, the production will feature the world renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center All Stars, under the direction of Grammy Award winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The score includes songs by the greatest jazz composers of the time, including Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields (“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and “Digga Digga Doo”), a young Harold Arlen (“Stormy Weather,” “I’ve Got the World on a String,” “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”), and Ellington himself, whose beloved catalogue includes “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” “Cotton Club Stomp,” “Black and Tan Fantasy,” and “Creole Love Call.”

The show most recently played to sold-out crowds at City Center from November 14-18, 2012, following-up its original debut in 2011. The 2012 cast featured Amber Riley of Glee, as well as Joshua Henry, Jared Grimes, Adriane Lenox, Alexandria “Brinae Ali” Bradley, Andrew “Dr.Ew” Carter, Kyra Da Costa, Carmen Ruby Floyd, La Tanya Hall, Jeremiah “Supaman” Haynes, Christopher Jackson, Monroe Kent III, Karine Plantadit, T. Oliver Reid, Britton Smith, Christopher Broughton, C.K. Edwards, Wilkie Ferguson, Chanon Judson, Candice Monet McCall, Marielys Molina, Erin N. Moore, Monique Smith, Daniel J. Watts, and J.L. Williams.

For a look back at Riley’s work in Cotton Club Parade, watch here.