Full Cast Set for Broadway Production of Radio Golf

Anthony Chisholm, John Earl Jelks, and James Williams will join previously announced stars Harry Lennix and Tonya Pinkins in the Broadway production of August Wilson’s final play Radio Golf, which begins previews on April 20 at the Cort Theatre. The production, to be directed by Kenny Leon, will open officially on May 8.

The play, which concludes Wilson’s 10-play “Pittsburgh Hill” cycle, is set in 1997 and concerns Harmond Wilks (Lennix), a powerful real estate developer who wants to be the city’s first black mayor. However, a mysterious stranger who claims ownership of the house of Aunt Ester — the central character in Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean — arrives and forces Wilks to reconsider his path to success.

Pinkins will play Wilks’ supportive wife, Mame; Chisholm will play Elder Joseph Barlow; Jelks will play Sterling Johnson; and Williams will play Roosevelt Hicks.

The show’s creative team will feature David Gallo (sets), Susan Hilferty (costumes), Donald Holder (lighting), and Dan Moses Schreier (sound). Leon has directed many regional productions of Radio Golf, including the current Goodman Theatre staging in Chicago. His prior Broadway credits include Gem of the Ocean and the Tony Award-winning revival of A Raisin in the Sun.

Chisholm, Jelks, and Williams have appeared in all seven regional productions of Radio Golf, which premiered at Yale Rep in 2005. Chisholm and Jelks also co-starred in the Broadway production of Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean; Williams is making his Broadway debut.

Lennix, who will be making his Broadway debut, has been seen in regional stagings of Wilson’s King Hedley II and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, as well as Malcolm and Caught in the Act. He can currently be seen on the big screen in Stomp the Yard and in the television series 24. Pinkins won the Tony Award for Jelly’s Last Jam and the Obie, Lucile Lortel, and other honors, including a Tony nomination, for Caroline, or Change. Her other Broadway credits include Play On and Chronicle of a Death Foretold.