Kandi Burress and Todd Tucker Join Othello Producing Team

Kandi Burress and Todd Tucker Join Othello Producing Team

Kenny Leon will direct a new production of the Shakespearean tragedy starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Broadway vets Kandi Burress and Todd Tucker have joined the producing team for Broadway’s upcoming Othello revival. Starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, the production will be directed by Kenny Leon, with Washington playing the title role opposite Gyllenhaal as Iago. Performances of the Shakespeare tragedy are expected to begin in spring 2025 at a Shubert Organization-owned theatre to be announced.

Burress and Tucker join lead producer Brian Anthony Moreland, as well as a large slate of co-producers, including Devale Ellis, Adam Zotovich, Richard Batchelder, Ken Davenport, Lassen D’Arrigo, Score 3 Partners, Lu-Shawn M. Thompson, Lamar Richardson, Cohen-Willman Productions, 11:11 Experience, 42nd.club, Hunter Arnold, Craig Balsam, Slater Bernon Butterfield, Goehring Turchin Alperson, Great Shakes Productions, Branden Grimmett, Marguerite Steed Hoffman, Christen James, The John Gore Organization, Willette & Manny Klausner, Scott H. Mauro, Stephanie P. McClelland, Carl Moellenberg, Renard McGill, Dan Stone, Cynthia Stroum, The Araca Group, Daryl Roth, Tom Tuft, Lloyd Tichio Productions, and The Shubert Organization. 

The production will be Washington’s first time back on the boards since starring in a 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh. The revival also reunites him with Leon, after working together on 2010’s Fences (which won Washington a Tony Award) and 2014’s A Raisin in the Sun. Gyllenhaal made his Broadway debut in 2015’s Constellations, later returning for a 2017 revival of Sunday in the Park With George and 2019’s Sea Wall/A Life (also produced by Moreland), the latter of which earned him a Tony nomination.

Joining Washington and Gyllenhaal in the cast as Desdemona will be Molly Osborne, a rising star of the West End stage, whose credits include playing Tzeitel in Menier Chocolate Factory’s Fiddler on the Roof and Chana in Menier’s Indecent. On screen, Osborne can be seen in PBS’ Call the Midwife and in Amazon Prime’s upcoming Anansi Boys.

Shakespeare is, of course, never far from Broadway, though this upcoming revival will be the first Broadway staging of the tragedy since a 1982 revival starring James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. The classic play follows its title character, a Moorish military commander who falls victim to a psychological campaign from adversary Iago aimed at turning him against his new wife, Desdemona. 

The production will feature scenic design by two-time Tony winner Derek McLane, costume design by Tony winner Dede Ayite, lighting design by eight-time Tony winner Natasha Katz, sound design by Obie Award winner Justin Ellington, hair and wig design by Emmy winner Mia Neal, intimacy direction by Claire Warden, and production stage management by Narda E. Alcorn.

The revival will be arguably the highest-profile production brought to the Main Stem by producer Moreland, who produced the most recent revival of The Wiz, also with Burress and Tucker. He’s previously received four Tony Award nominations, for The Piano Lesson, American Buffalo, The Sound Inside, and Sea Wall/A Life.

The production is being cast by ARC Casting’s Duncan Stewart. 101 Productions will serve as general manager.