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16.12.2022 - 07:29 / deadline.com
Ain’t No Mo’, playwright Jordan E. Cooper’s acclaimed but struggling Broadway comedy, has extended its run for another week and will now play through Friday, December 23, at the Belasco Theatre.
Cooper announced the extension at the curtain call following tonight’s performance. The reprieve comes just days after the production, presented by Lee Daniels, announced a Dec. 18 closing date after just 22 previews and 21 regular performances.
See Cooper relay the news in the video above.
Cooper, the youngest Black American playwright to have a show open on Broadway, launched a #SaveAintNoMo social media campaign following the closing announcement, as he and Daniels have worked to rally support for the show. Ain’t No Mo’, which received strong reviews from critics, addresses, through outrageous comedy, poignant drama and biting satire, issues of racial injustice, with various scenes and vignettes built around the premise that the United States government has decided to “solve racism” by sending Black Americans back to Africa.
Since the launch of the awareness campaign, celebrities including Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, RuPaul, Tyler Perry, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, Queen Latifah, Shonda Rhimes and Sara Ramirez have stepped up to support the show, with, according to tonight’s announcement, “significant contributions” from Reverend Al Sharpton, Swizz Beatz, D-Nice, Derrick Hayes & Pinky Cole, Jeremy O. Harris, Denee Benton, Debbie Allen and Dominique Morrisseau.
Co-producers Lena Waithe and RuPaul hosted performances this week, with Perry and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith buying out entire performances.
Earlier this week, Deadline interviewed Cooper and Daniels about the show, the challenges of staging Black theater on
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Ain’t No Mo’, the Broadway debut of author and star Jordan E. Cooper, opened at the Belasco Theatre on Dec. 1 to the sort of reviews producers and playwrights dream about. Even the few critics who weren’t completely won over couldn’t help but point out a singular brilliance at work here, not to mention a stars-in-the-making cast and more laugh-out-loud moments than most of the rest of Broadway combined. A celebrity-packed opening night, with producer Lee Daniels greeting a crowd that included Gabrielle Union, Dwayne Wade and C. J. Uzomah – who happen to be among the starry cohort of co-producers – as well as Matthew Broderick, Tamron Hall, Deborah Cox, Stephanie Mills, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Susan Kelechi Watson, Camryn Manheim, Tony Kushner, Tituss Burgess, Gayle King, Pat Williams, Christopher Sieber, Jennifer Simard, Colton Ryan, Ari’el Stachel and Timothy Olyphant suggested nothing less than the buzzy arrival of Broadway’s next big thing, out-of-the-box division.
For the second time in a week, Broadway is losing a worthy production that attempted to find an audience that encompassed but reached beyond the usual white, middle-aged demographic: Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’, the often visionary, relentlessly brilliant and forever fearless take by its Black creators and performers on the stubborn subject of race in America will close next week.
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