Tony Award-Winning Purpose Arrives in LA This Fall

L-R: Jon Michael Hill, Kara Young, and Harry Lennix in the Broadway production of Purpose. Photo by Marc J. Franklin.

Following a knockout Broadway run, Purpose didn’t just make noise—it made history. The play took home the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, officially crowning Branden Jacobs-Jenkins as one of the boldest, most essential voices shaping American theater right now. And the accolades didn’t stop there: at the 2025 Tony Awards, Purpose walked away with Best Play and Best Featured Actress in a Play for the unstoppable Kara Young.

Blending razor-sharp wit, layered family dynamics, and that kind of humor that knows exactly when to laugh and when to cut deep, Purpose is a play that feels as good as it stings (in the best way). It’s smart, it’s messy, and it’s unmistakably alive. Now, Los Angeles, it’s our turn. Purpose makes its debut this fall at the Geffen Playhouse, reuniting the original Broadway cast under the masterful direction of Phylicia Rashad. Performances begin November 11.

Purpose

NOV 11 – DEC 13, 2026
GIL CATES THEATER

Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Phylicia Rashad
Featuring Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis, Jon Michael Hill, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennix & Kara Young

Meet the Jaspers: generations of a powerful Black political family under one roof where nothing stays buried for long. When their youngest son returns home, instincts kick in to protect their public image of leadership and moral authority, and fractures soon appear as private grievances, betrayals, and long-simmering questions of identity rise to the surface.

Direct from Broadway, this 2025 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning play makes its LA debut with the original Broadway cast, directed by the incomparable Phylicia Rashad. Both intimate and epic, Purpose is provocative, often hilarious, and ultimately a devastating exploration of legacy and the cost of believing in something bigger than yourself.

Originally Produced on Broadway by David Stone, Debra Martin Chase, Marc Platt, LaChanze, Rashad V. Chambers, Aaron Glick, Universal Theatrical Group, Eastern Standard Time, Trate Productions, Nancy Nagel Gibbs, James L. Nederlander, John Gore, ATG Entertainment, The Shubert Organization, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

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