Tonya Pinkins to Star in L.A. Production of As Much As You Can

Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins will star in Paul Oakley Stovall’s As Much As You Can, to play Los Angeles’ Celebration Theatre, January 3-27. The production will be directed by Krissy Vanderwarker.

The production will also feature Wes Ramsey, Yassmin Allers, J.Nicole Brooks, Andrew Kelsey, and J. Karen Thomas, along with Stovall. The creative team includes Heather Graff and Richard Peterson (sets and lighting), and Josh Horvath and Andre Pleuss (sound).

The play concerns Jesse, who returns home to Chicago for his brother’s wedding, and surprises his family by bringing along his Swedish boyfriend, Christian. Jesse’s three siblings have varying reactions to the couple: half-sister Ronnie is supportive and anxious for the family to fully accept Jesse and Christian as a couple; younger brother Tony, once he conquers his initial homophobia, is resistant to welcoming a white man into their African-American family; and deeply religious sister Evy thinks that Jesse is betraying the memory of their deceased parents by “choosing” what she considers a sinful, unnatural lifestyle.

Pinkins received the Tony Award for Jelly’s Last Jam, and her many Broadway credits include Caroline, or Change, Radio Golf, and Play On! She is well known to television viewers for her long-running role as Livia Frye Cudahy on All My Children.