Stevie Walker-Webb has been artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage for less than a year, but he’s begun leveraging his connections to bring big names to Charm City that could attract national attention.
The theater announced its 2024-25 season Wednesday, and the lineup of six shows includes two high-profile world premieres: a new play by “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, and a comedy by Jordan E. Cooper, whose edgy satire about race relations, “Ain’t No Mo,” made a splash on Broadway in 2022.
Because seasons are set up a year in advance, this will be the first slate of shows at Center Stage that Walker-Webb has personally selected.
“I’m over the moon,” he said.
“I’m excited to let the Baltimore community see me work on shows that are germane to me. I love a lot of the plays that I directed at Center Stage before I became artistic director. But, I didn’t pick them. Now, people in Baltimore will finally get to meet me.”
Noting that he will direct both world premieres, Walker-Webb joked: “There’s no pressure at all.”
The season will kick off Sept. 19 with Jordan E. Cooper’s “Oh Happy Day!,” which runs through Oct. 13 and combines a comedy about a dysfunctional relationship between a devout Christian father and his gay son with a retelling of the Biblical tale of Noah’s ark. Cooper will portray the son, who tells his disbelieving family that he has been sent by God to save them from an impending flood.
“Oh Happy Day!” will feature a gospel score composed by the Grammy-nominated songwriter Donald Lawrence. It is being produced in conjunction with New York’s Public Theater and will travel to The Big Apple after it leaves Baltimore.
Eight months later, the 2024-25 season will wrap up with Weiner’s “John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only.”
Walker-Webb said he and Weiner are both represented by the same talent agency, and the two men joined forces a few years ago with a Broadway production company to develop a show about President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. But when Walker-Webb was appointed Center Stage’s artistic director last September, he suggested that they launch “One Night Only” from his new theater instead — and Weiner quickly agreed.
“Matthew was born in Baltimore and considers himself a Marylander, so this is a full-circle moment for him,” Walker-Webb said.
The play, which runs next year from May 15 to June 15, imagines a solo theatrical performance in which Booth tries to explain how he came to be in Washington’s Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865 holding a loaded gun.
Booth, who grew up in Bel Air and is buried in Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery, will be portrayed by Ben Ahlers, who is cast as the clever footman Jack Trotter in the HBO series “The Gilded Age.”
“Matthew spent almost a decade researching the Booth family,” Walker-Webb said. “The historical accuracy is quite arresting.”
The remaining four shows in Center Stage’s 2024-25 season range from reimagined classics of English literature to the stage version of an iconic family film. They include:
- “Pride and Prejudice” which is being produced in cooperation with the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Playwright Kate Hamill adaptation of Jane Austen’s timeless novel looks at economically-driven courtship rituals in 19th century Britain from a feminist point of view. The production, which runs Oct. 17 to Nov. 10, will be directed by former Center Stage interim artistic director Ken-Matt Martin.
- Artscentric’s production of “Black Nativity,” from Nov. 30-Dec. 22. The Baltimore troupe has been packing in audiences at Center Stage since 2021 with high-voltage productions of “Dreamgirls”, “Crowns”, and “Cinderella.” The Langston Hughes musical drama will be directed by ArtsCentric co-founder Kevin McAllister, with an original score composed by company co-founder Cedric Lyles.
- The East Coast premiere of Sarah Mantell’s “Everything That Never Happened,” from Feb. 13-March 9. Mantell’s time-hopping play re-examines one of William Shakespeare’s greatest hits, “The Merchant of Venice,” through a Jewish lens focusing on Shylock, his daughter, her forbidden love, and the price she pays to break free.
- “Akeelah and the Bee,” running from March 20 to April 15 and based on the much-loved 2006 film starring Keke Palmer. “Akeelah” tells the story of a young girl who dreams of winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This production aims to introduce young audience members to the magic of a live stage show, and will kick off Center Stage’s spring slate of youth programs.
As pleased as Walker-Webb is with his inaugural season, he says he is just getting started.
He has his sights set on securing a regional Tony Award for Center Stage, which has never won that prize in the 47 years that it has been handed out. Walker-Webb thinks that honor is overdue.
“Baltimore hasn’t been given its full credit for being the cultural mecca that it is,” Walker-Webb said.
“I want shows that start here to go on to other theaters, so the nation can see the conversations that we are having here.”
Season tickets will go on sale Wednesday and individual tickets will go on sale this summer. For more information, go to centerstage.org.
