Exclusive: Harry Lennix talks Broadway play Purpose and Love & Basketball 20th Anniversary
Currently playing at the Helen Hayes Theater (240 West 44th Street) is the play Purpose. Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate, The Comeuppance), and directed by Phylicia Rashad in her Broadway directorial debut. PURPOSE is playing a limited 19-week run through July 6, 2025. The show runs at 2 hours and 50 minutes.
The cast includes Two-time Tony Award nominee LaTanya Richardson-Jackson, Harry Lennix, Jon Michael Hill, Glenn Davis, Alana Arenas, and Tony Award winner Kara Young.
Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis, Jon Michael Hill, and Harry Lennix all appeared in the play’s acclaimed world premiere at Steppenwolf in March 2024.
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. Spirited, hilarious and filled with intrigue, PURPOSE is an epic family drama from one of the country’s most celebrated voices. Lennix plays the matriarch "Solomon 'Sonny' Jasper."
His Broadway debut was starring as "Harmond Wilks" in August Wilson's Tony Award-nominated play Radio Golf, and he has delivered notable Off-Broadway performances in productions such as Titus Andronicus. His regional theater work is equally impressive, with roles in classics like A Raisin in the Sun, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Othello, and The Great Gatsby. Beyond acting, Lennix has directed plays including The Glass Menagerie at Steppenwolf Theatre Company the stage version of Robert Townsend's The Five Heartbeats, which received three NAACP Theater Award nominations.
Lennix's film career features a diverse array of roles, with appearances in major motion pictures such as Zack Snyder's Justice League, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel, Ray, The Matrix franchise, Love & Basketball, Titus, and The Five Heartbeats. More recently, Love & Basketball just celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks to Harry Lennix on his role in the Broadway play Purpose and Love & Basketball 20th Anniversary.
