Alicia Keys helping produce a Broadway play

[June 28, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Alicia Keys is following Jay-Z and Will Smith into the world of Broadway producers.

Keys, whose hits include "Fallin'" and "A Woman's Worth," will help produce Lydia R. Diamond's play "Stick Fly" this fall.

The work is a contemporary comedy of manners revolving around an affluent black family whose insecurities gradually reveal themselves during a vacation to Martha's Vineyard.

"I'm passionate about this play because it is so beautifully written and portrays black America in a way that we don't often get to see in entertainment," Keys said in a statement. "I know it will touch all audiences who will find a piece of themselves somewhere inside this house."

The piece has been performed in Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C. It's set to begin performances at the Lyceum Theatre on 45th Street on Nov. 18 and officially opens Dec. 8.

The director will be Kenny Leon, whose Broadway production of "Fences" earned 10 Tony Award nominations. His other credits include "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Radio Golf."

Diamond, a playwriting professor at Boston University, previously adapted Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" for the stage and has written "Stage Black" and "The Gift Horse."

In 2009, Jay-Z, Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith joined the producing team of the musical "Fela!," the show about Afrobeat superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

[Associated Press; BY MARK KENNEDY]

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