Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose, Directed by Phylicia Rashad, Begins Performances

Purpose, the epic family drama by Tony Award-winning Appropriate playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, begins performances at Broadway's Hayes Theater on February 25. Its official opening is set for March 17.

The cast will feature two-time Tony Award nominee LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennix, Jon Michael Hill, Glenn Davis, Alana Arenas and Tony Award winner Kara Young. Arenas, Davis, Hill and Lennix reprise their performances on Broadway after having starred in the world-premiere production at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2024.

Two-time Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad makes her Broadway directorial debut with the play. 

For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black political power and familial duty.