Chris Rock Heads To Broadway, Talks Hollywood and Race

Pookie has kicked the habit and is ready to keep the other kids off rocks. Onstage that is.

Chris Rock is heading to Broadway to play a drug counselor in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ controversial new play “The Motherf**ker With the Hat,” which is set to begin previews on March 15 before opening on April 11 at Manhattan’s Gerald Shoenfeld Theater.

Rock has described the show as “The Honeymooners with drugs” and hopes to become a Broadway regular if his stint on stage is a success.

“I could absolutely do one of these every once in a while,” Rock said. I like this process because it values the writer. Literally, nothing’s done without the writer’s approval – and that’s so different from the movies. In the movies, they kind of hate the writers. The writers’ union needs a Rosa Parks.”

Huh? So Hollyweird is prejudiced against writers or black people?

Apparently both!

In a recent NY Times article Rock also addressed the racial issues around the role:

“If this was a movie, I’d jump at it,” he said. “But guess what? If this was a movie, they’d figure out a way for everyone to be white.

“I didn’t say that with anger, did I? Please don’t say I said it angrily. I got all Spike on you.”

Mr. Rock’s fears weren’t far from reality, though. Mr. Guirgis took the play to the Ojai Playwrights Conference in California and received feedback that maybe the character should be white. “Ojai is really rich and really white,” said Mr. Guirgis, who added that the play was met with a “ ‘those people’ thing.” He said he recalled thinking that “white people are going to find a way to check out” if they don’t see themselves in the play. (Most of the other characters are Latino; in the play’s first reading, Mr. Rock’s role was read by Michael Shannon of “Boardwalk Empire.”) But once Mr. Rock signed on, Mr. Guirgis said: “The whole race of the sponsor thing just fell out. Chris kind of transcends that race issue.”

Would you go to Broadway to see Chris Rock play a drug counselor? He was a pretty convincing crackhead.

We like the title, so we’re all for this one. Congratulations Chris!

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