John Legend, Lynn Nottage, and Liesl Tommy bring ‘Imitation of Life’ to the Shed this fall — tickets on sale now for Shed members
A major new American musical rooted in one of the most complicated and culturally significant stories in American film history is heading to the Shed this fall.
“Imitation of Life,” a new musical inspired by Fannie Hurst’s groundbreaking 1933 novel and the celebrated Universal Pictures film adaptations that followed, will begin performances on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at the Griffin Theater at the Shed and run through Sunday, October 4, 2026, in a strictly limited four-week engagement.
The production brings together a powerhouse creative team led by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, who wrote the book; John Legend, who composed the music and lyrics; and director Liesl Tommy, the Tony Award-nominated filmmaker and stage director known for emotionally rich work across theater, television, and film.
Presented as a co-production between the Shed and National Black Theatre, this version of “Imitation of Life” is being positioned not simply as a commercial run, but as the first major developmental step for a new American musical. The production will feature a full cast and live orchestra in a staged presentation designed to bring the work itself to the foreground and allow audiences to witness the musical in its formative stages.
Inspired by Hurst’s original novel, “Imitation of Life” follows two single mothers — one African American and one white — and their daughters as they attempt to build a shared life while navigating race, class, motherhood, ambition, identity, and survival in America. Set between the boardwalks of 1920s Atlantic City and the rapidly changing world of 1930s New York, the musical explores the emotional cost of chasing the American dream and the legacy parents leave behind for future generations.
The source material remains one of the most discussed works in American cinema history. The original 1934 film adaptation, directed by John M. Stahl and starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and later added to the U.S. National Film Registry for its “cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.”
The 1959 adaptation from director Douglas Sirk, starring Lana Turner and Juanita Moore, became an even larger cultural touchstone. Although initially dismissed by some critics as melodrama, the film was later re-evaluated as one of Sirk’s masterpieces and is now widely praised for its treatment of race, passing, motherhood, and identity in mid-century America.
Historic reactions to the original film reveal just how provocative the material was for its time. According to contemporary reviews cited in film archives, the trade publication Variety wrote in 1934 that the most powerful element of the film was “the tragedy of Aunt Delilah’s girl born to a white skin and Negro blood,” noting that the subject “had never been treated upon the screen before.” The review added that actress Louise Beavers “takes the whole scale of human emotions from joy to anguish and never sounds a false note.”
Other publications of the era recognized the film’s racial tensions while critiquing Hollywood’s limitations in confronting them directly. The Literary Digest observed that the film appeared “extremely careful to avoid its most dramatic theme” because of the racial implications surrounding the story of a light-skinned African American daughter attempting to pass as white.
The new stage adaptation arrives when conversations about race, identity, representation, and generational memory continue to shape both American theater and film. With Nottage, Legend, and Tommy at the helm, the production also marks a rare convergence of three major African American creative voices reinterpreting material that has had a complicated place in American cultural history for nearly a century.
Additional details, including casting, designers, and the full creative team, will be announced later.
Lead producers include the National Black Theatre; Legend and Mike Jackson of Get Lifted Film Co.; Tommy and Jennifer Mudge of Crocodile Eyes; Universal Theatrical Group; Sue Wagner; John Johnson; Mickey Liddell; Pete Shilaimon of LD Entertainment; and the Shed.
Tickets for the general public are on sale now, and pre-sale for Shed members and Mastercard cardholders will begin Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Major support for “Imitation of Life” is through the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Commissioning Fund and The Shed Commissioners, with additional support from the Shubert Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts.
For more information:
https://nationalblacktheatre.org/
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