Colman Domingo Co-Producing the Broadway Production of “Fat Ham”

Colman Domingo is hamming it up…

The 53-year-old Belizean-Guatemalan American actor and social justice activist, an Emmy winner and Tony Award, has signed on as co-producer of the upcoming Broadway production of James IjamesPultizer Prize winning play Fat Ham.

Colman DomingoBeginning performances on Tuesday, March 21, the production of Fat Ham at American Airlines Theatre  has an official opening night of Wednesday, April 12 for a strictly limited 14-week engagement through Sunday, June 25.

The play, which has been described as a “comic tragedy,” reinvents Shakespeare’s Hamlet by setting it at a backyard cookout where Juicy, a queer, Black Southern college kid grappling with questions of identity, is met by the ghost of his father who shows up demanding that Juicy avenge his murder, even as Juicy is trying to break the cycles of trauma and violence in service of his own liberation.

Fat Ham on Broadway is a Public Theater and National Black Theatre co-production.

“I am beyond thrilled to be a co-producer on The National Black Theater and Public Theater transfer of James Ijames thrilling Fat Ham directed by my dear friend and visionary director Saheem Ali,” Domingo said in a statement to Deadline. “This is the kind of theater that we need on Broadway – bold reimaginings of stories that fuel us all.”

The Broadway transfer of Fat Ham from the Off Broadway Public Theatre represents National Black Theatre’s first production on Broadway, and only the third play to be transferred by a Black theater in Broadway’s century-long history. The complete Off Broadway cast will make the move to Broadway.

Domingo currently stars in Fear of the Walking Dead and Euphoria, and has completed filming of The Color Purple. He is a 2011 Tony Award nominee for his performance in The Scottsboro Boys musical.

Cannavale to Star Opposite Al Pacino on Broadway

Bobby Cannavale is heading back to Broadway in a big way…

Along with appearing in the Roundabout Theatre Company‘s spring 2013 revival of Clifford OdetsThe Big Knife, the 42-year-old half-Cuban American has signed on to star opposite Al Pacino this fall in a revival of David Mamet‘s Glengarry Glen Ross, the 1984 Pulitzer Prize winning drama about a ruthless bunch of real estate sharks.

Bobby Cannavale

The play will begin previews on October 16 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, with the official opening set for November 11.

Daniel Sullivan, who last led Pacino to a Tony Award nomination two seasons ago in The Merchant of Venice, is set to direct the production. The revival marks the 30th anniversary of Mamet’s groundbreaking play, which he wrote in 1982.

Cannavale has been tapped to play hot-shot broker Ricky Roma, the role portrayed by Pacino in the 1992 screen version. Pacino will take on the role of fading former sales ace Shelley “The Machine” Levene.

While a cutoff date for the revival hasn’t been set yet, the limited engagement will free up Cannavale in time to maintain his previous commitment to star in The Big Knife, which is expected to start previews at the American Airlines Theatre on March 22 for an April opening.

Cannavale, who will be appearing in Woody Allen‘s next film project, previously appeared in two Broadway productions, Mauritius (2008) and The Motherf**ker With the Hat (2011), earning Tony nominations both times.