Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, actress, author and producer Ledisi will join Broadway’s “Wanted” as Tallulah Clarke, mother to the Clarke sisters. As previously announced, Solea Pfeiffer and Liisi LaFontaine will star as Mary Clarke and Martha Clarke in the new musical. The show begins performances at the James Earl Jones Theatre on October 15 with opening night set for November 8.
“I am beyond thrilled to join the cast of ‘Wanted.’ My first Broadway principal role, and I still can’t believe it,” Ledisi shared in a statement. “I love being a recording artist, and that will never change. Theater has always been part of my vision as a storyteller. This isn’t a pivot... It’s another expansion of me. And I’m just getting started.”
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Ledisi made her Broadway debut as a standby in “Caroline, or Change” and performed in the “Hair” Actors’ Fund benefit concert. Her film credits include “Leatherheads,” “Spinning Gold,” “Selma” and “Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story.”
Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb with choreography by Chelsey Arce, “Wanted” features a book and lyrics by Angelica Chéri, a descendant of the Sisters Clarke, and music by Ross Baum. Additional creative team and casting will be announced at a later date.
“Wanted” is the mostly true story of twin sisters, outlaws and legends Mary and Martha Clarke in Texas, 1893. Black women who pass for white and hide in plain sight, they straddle a dangerous line between two Americas. But as powerful forces close in to keep their family from claiming a future of their own, Mary and Martha are driven to desperate measures to save their mother and their family’s legacy. When survival demands they do the unthinkable, the sisters nevertheless fight for self-determination, dignity and the inheritance they have long been denied.
