Tony award nominated actress, Sanaa Lathan is gearing up for her return to Off-Broadway in a new comedy from the Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright of Ruined, Lynn Nottage. The play, BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARKS, draws upon the screwball films of the 1930’s to take a funny and irreverent look at racial stereotypes in Hollywood. BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK is a seventy year journey through the life of Vera Stark, a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress, and her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold on to her career. When circumstances collide and both women land roles in the same Southern epic, the story behind the cameras leaves Vera with a surprising and controversial legacy scholars will debate for years to come.
HelloBeautiful readers can receive a 40% discount off the regular price of tickets to the show.
The show is scheduled to run April 6 – May 22, 2011.
SECOND STAGE THEATRE
305 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
Here are the details:
See BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK and save when you use code: MPVS
Tickets: $42.50* (regular price $75)
Three easy ways to purchase tickets:
Online: Visit and purchase online HERE!
By Phone: Call 212.246.4422
In Person: Mention the code at 2econd StageTheatre Box Office
305 West 43rd Street at 8th Avenue
The plays stars:
STEPHANIE J. BLOCK (Gloria Mitchell) recently starred on Broadway in 9 to 5: The Musical as Judy Bernly, for which she earned a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Prior to to 9 to 5, Stephanie starred as Elphaba in the Broadway company of Wicked and recorded her debut solo album, This Place I Know. Other Broadway credits include originating the roles of Grace O’Malley in The Pirate Queen and Liza Minnelli in The Boy from Oz (opposite Hugh Jackman). She also starred in the first national touring company of Wicked as Elphaba for which she won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actress and the Carbonell Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Some of her regional credits include Funny Girl, Crazy For You (L.A. Ovation Award Nomination), Oliver (Critics Award-Best Actress), James Joyce’s The Dead, Triumph Of Love, The Grass Harp, South Pacific, Will Rogers Follies, They’re Playing Our Song opposite Jason Alexander, and the World Premiere of Wicked.
DANIEL BREAKER (Leroy Barksdale/ Herb Forrester) most recently appeared on Broadway as Donkey in Shrek the Musical. His other Broadway credits include Passing Strange (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations, Theatre World Award, AUDELCO Award), Cymbeline (LCT) and Well. Off-Broadway he starred in Passing Strange (Public), Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation (Playwrights Horizons), Pericles (Red Bull, Culture Project). Regionally Breaker has appeared in Life Is a Dream (South Coast Rep), The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare Theatre Company; Helen Hayes nomination), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (SCR), The Tempest (STC; Helen Hayes nomination), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (STC), The Rivals (STC), The Silent Woman (STC), HMS Pinafore (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Black Sheep (Barrington), Sundance Theater Lab, 2005. Breaker’s film and television credits include Passing Strange directed by Spike Lee and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”
DAVID GARRISON (Slasvick/Brad) Broadway: A Day in Hollywood/A Nicht in the Ukraine (Tony Nomination), Wicked (Carbonell Award), Titanic, Torch Song Trilogy, The Pirates of Penzance, Bells Are Ringing. Off-Broadway: Middletown, New Jerusalem, I Do! IDo! (Drama Desk nomination), The Torch Bearers, Geniuses, It’s Only a Play. Television: “The West Wing,” “Law and Order,” “The Practice,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “NYPD Blue,” “Murphy Brown,” “Murder She Wrote,” “LA Law,” Steve Rhoades on “Married With Children.” David’s voice is currently playing on Broadway as the radio announcer in That Championship Season.
KIMBERLY HÉBERT GREGORY (Lottie/ Carmen Levy-Green) recently starred in The Brother/Sister Plays at The Public Theatre. Gregory’s other theatre credits include the first national tour of The Lion King, Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery at Chicago Theatre Company (Joseph Jefferson Nomination), Amen Corner at the Goodman Theatre, Nickel and Dimed at the Steppenwolf Theatre, Waiting to be Invited at the Victory Gardens Theater, and Julius Caesar at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Antony and Cleopatra and Gee’s Bend at Hartford Stage, Tough Titty at The Magic Theatre, and a one-woman piece entitled Evangeline Elsewhere at the 1st National NY Irish Theatre Festival. Gregory’s television and film credits include I Think I Love My Wife, “Gossip Girl,” “New Amsterdam” and “The Black Donnellys.”
KEVIN ISOLA (Maximillian Von Oster/ Brian Blaze) recently appeared in the Transport Group’s production of The Boys in the Band. His other New York theatre credits include Brooklyn Boy (MTC, Broadway), Trust (Play Company), The World Over, The Water Children (both for Playwrights Horizons), Twelfth Night and Venus, WASP and Other Plays (NYSF/Public Theatre), Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center) and The New Bozena (Cherry Lane). Regionally he has appeared in Twelfth Night (McCarter), The Glass Menagerie (Old Globe), King Lear (STNJ), The Rainmaker (Center Stage) and Venus (Yale Repertory). Isola’s film and television credits include Frank the Rat, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Uninvited, 24 Nights, The New Yorker, “Fringe,” “Damages,” “Boston Legal,” “Law and Order,” “All My Children.”
SANAA LATHAN (Vera Stark) recently starred as Maggie the Cat in the West End revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Her previous theatre credits include: Beneatha Younger in A Raisin In The Sun with Sean Combs (Tony® Award Nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress); Isabella in Measure For Measure opposite Billy Crudup at The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park; Emily Webb in Our Town at South Coast Repertory; Por’knockers at The Vineyard Theater; A Movie Star Has To Star In Black and White at the Public Theater; and Viola in Twelfth Night at Yale Repertory Theater. Her film credits include the upcoming Steven Soderbergh film Contagion, opposite Matt Damon and Kate Winslet, opening in October, Wonderful World opposite Matthew Broderick, The Family That Preys with Tyler Perry, Something New (NAACP Image Award Nomination), Alien vs. Predator, Out Of Time opposite Denzel Washington, Brown Sugar (NAACP Image Award Nomination), Love and Basketball (BET Award, NAACP Image Award), and The Best Man (NAACP Image Award Nomination). Her television credits include: “The Cleveland Show,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Nip/Tuck” (NAACP Image Award Nomination), and HBO’s Disappearing Acts.
KAREN OLIVO (Anna Mae/ Afua Assata Ejobo), the 2009 Tony Award winner for her portrayal of Anita in West Side Story, also created the role of Vanessa in the Tony Award-winning musical production of In the Heights both on and off Broadway. She also starred in the televised documentary “In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams.” Her other Broadway credits include Rent and Brooklyn. On television Olivo has been seen in recurring roles on “The Good Wife,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Conviction” as well as in “A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House.” Her film credits include Adrift in Manhattan, Sibling, The New Twenty and Two Lovers.
