‘Joe Turner’s Come And Gone’ Broadway Review: Taraji P. Henson & Cedric The Entertainer Shine In August Wilson Revival

Rare is the Broadway season that hasn’t been bettered by an August Wilson revival, and this very busy spring is no exception. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, lovingly and astutely directed by Debbie Allen with a no-weak-link cast headed by Taraji P. Henson (in a superb Broadway debut), Cedric The Entertainer and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, is nothing less than a full-on reminder of Wilson’s singular genius for blending naturalism with more-things-in-heaven-and-earth marvels.

This play, the second chronologically in the author’s incredible 10-play Century Cycle, is set in Pittsburgh yet inhabits the collective memory of Africa, the American South and some ancient, still-felt netherworld. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners couldn’t exist without Wilson’s cartography.

With its exemplary cast that includes an intense Joshua Boone, and a creative team filled with top-of-their-game designers Paul Tazewell (costumes), David Gallo (sets), Stacey Derosier (lighting) and Justin Ellington (sound), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is an unfailing glimpse into that phenomenon described by William Falkner as the past never being dead, never even being past. Ghosts – or haints or “shiny men” or “bones people” – are forever felt, if not ever-present.

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