Purlie Victorious

Matt Roush says...

Great Performances presents a spirited revival of Ossie Davis’s uproarious 1961 stage comedy in a production currently nominated for six Tony Awards, captured live during its Broadway run at the Music Box Theatre from September 2023 to February 2024. Among the nominees: director Kenny Leon and stars Leslie Odom Jr. (a Tony winner for Hamilton) and Kara Young. Odom plays the title role, a feisty Black preacher who returns home to Georgia, scheming to win back his inheritance and church from the crooked plantation owner Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee (the hilariously blustery Jay O. Sanders). His plan involves disguising the unsophisticated Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins (scene-stealer Young) as his deceased Cousin Bee, a slapstick subterfuge that goes about as well as you’d expect.

What's Worth Watching (May 24)