LaChanze Wants Alice Childress to Be Produced as Much as August Wilson, That Is Why She's Directing Wine in the Wilderness

When four-time Tony winner LaChanze was asked if she wanted to direct Alice Childress' play Wine in the Wilderness at Classic Stage Company Off-Broadway, the decision to say yes was a no-brainer—even if she hadn't directed a play before. "I didn't even think about it, I just said yes," she says with a dash of exuberance, before adding: "I didn't even consider what that would mean until we got close to it. Then I was like, 'Oh, I gotta cast it, find designers!'"

LaChanze has focused more on producing in recent years, winning three Tonys for it, so behind-the-scenes work isn't new to her. Notably though, her last Broadway gig as an actor was in the Broadway premiere of Childress' Trouble in Mind in 2021. And her love for the late playwright's work goes back further than that, and is deeper than a credit on a resume. Speaking from her office, LaChanze had a pillow with Childress' face emblazoned on it prominently displayed on her couch.

"I've always loved Alice Childress' work ever since being a freshman in college," says LaChanze. "I seek out women who speak from my voice, or writers that speak from the truth of our culture and our community."

Though Wine in the Wilderness first premiered in 1969, it has not been produced in New York. But thanks to the strength of LaChanze's production, the show's now been extended until April 19 and was just nominated for Outstanding Revival at the 2025 Lucille Lortel Awards. The play takes place in 1964, during a public riot in Harlem (a real-life event that occurred after 15-year-old James Powell was shot by a police officer). As the riots rage outside, a painter named Bill (Grantham Coleman) is trying to paint a triptych dedicated to Black womanhood. He wants to juxtapose his idea of the ideal Black woman, who he calls the "African queen" and "wine in the wilderness," with the modern, marginalized Black woman��"what the society has made of our women...ignorant, unfeminine, rude, vulgar."

His friends then introduce him to a potential model for that modern woman: She is named Tomorrow, Tommy for short, and ends up being more than just a silent stand-in. Wine in the Wilderness was first performed on a television program in 1969, as part of the series “On Being Black.�� It's rarely been produced since, though it is likely to have a resurgence thanks to this new production, which is led by Olivia Washington. Washington admits she hadn't read the play until she was contacted by LaChanze for the role of Tommy (the director had seen her in a reading of another play).

"I was like, 'She sees that in me. She sees that I can do it,'" marvels Washington. "From that, it was, like, how to truthfully and lovingly portray this person who I so admire, her bravery and her vulnerability and her access to her full self. I think there's such rare opportunities as a young Black woman to find that exploration, and it's so exciting to me." Though Washington did admit that she was intimidated when she landed the part, because she could so clearly see how well LaChanze could play Tommy: "She would kill this role!"

Grantham Coleman and Olivia Washington in *Wine in the Wilderness* Marc J. Franklin

Washington's previous credits include Slave Play in the West End and the film version of The Piano Lesson (which was directed by her brother Malcolm). Her father, Denzel Washington, is currently acting in Othello on Broadway (though she admits she hasn't seen the show). The young actor credits her parents, her mother is Pauletta Washington, for giving her a love of theatre. "We talk about both being on stage at the same time, that's fun," she says. "And we share rehearsal stories. But throughout my life, it's been a conversation of the importance of theatre and telling stories in this medium, and I've watched both of my parents navigate it so beautifully. So I'm very blessed to have that."

Responds LaChanze, whose daughter, Celia Rose Gooding, is also an actor. "I've actually worked with her mother. It was really small, but we got to know each other a little bit through it. She's awesome. We talk about our daughters, as mothers of actresses." The conversation then turns to whether or not actor mothers should give their actor children notes. "I would give notes to my daughter, who is an actress as well, but I learned very early on to stay in my lane. Stay in my lane unless she asks me," says LaChanze with visible pride.

Says Washington, who has gotten her fair share of notes from her mother, "You can't help it. You love us too much, and thankfully."

Washington has made such an impression with Wine in the Wilderness that she was just nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for her performance. Even though the play opens with a man in front of a canvas, the show is truly a showcase for the actor playing Tommy. While Bill and his friends immediately judge Tommy for being less cultured than they are, she asserts herself over the course of the play, exposing Bill and his intellectual friends for their stereotypes of working-class Black people. Bill, in particular, is filled with opinions about Black women and their flaws, and how he thinks they should act—he gets a firm talking to that had the audience at a recent performance snapping and audibly affirming.

Those nuanced conversations about class and gender occur in the Black community, today, says LaChanze. "This play, specifically, is written by a Black woman about Black people, for Black people," she says. "What Alice wrote in this play wouldn't be said if it were in a real situation with white people in the room. And so, to be able to have the audience witness this, it's exciting, it's educational, it's informative, but then you can relate in your own family—in your family, whatever culture you come from, there may be a similar kind of: This is how the family talks to each other. You give yourself freedom to be more direct and blunt. And Alice writes this unapologetically for the world to see."

When asked why she believes Childress' plays are classics, LaChanze responds with: "Alice writes from the inside of how Black women feel and think in society, and puts words to it. We all think this all the time, certain things that we all think but would never say. But she gives us the words, and it's freeing."

Importantly, Washington points out that there are no villains in this piece. Instead, it is a conversation between different people—and how an opening of hearts and minds can occur when different types of individuals come together. And how the art that is made from those conversations can become more authentic, more truthful. Says Washington: "As a young person, I'm constantly trying to figure out how I can better the world and use what I have to the best of my ability. So it's seeing these people [in the play] as people. But also, just the internal conversation that's happening within the Black community about what we should be and how we best can represent ourselves is really, I think, what we were working with, in the story—how to tell that. And through the different mediums of how people do it."

LaChanze and the company of *Wine in the Wilderness* Allison Stock

But it's that mix of truth, delivered with love, that has drawn LaChanze back again and again to Childress' work. And working on this play has only solidified LaChanze's own impetus for becoming a producer.

"That's why I started my production company last June [LaChanze Productions]," she says. "I've learned in the past three years now that I've been producing theatre is that I need to be more of a leader in the space—meaning having my own production company so that I can select the works and that I can produce the works that I think need to be produced. I want to be a part of the future of theatre and the future of what will become, hopefully, classics down the road for the generations behind me, that will create more opportunity for so many of these young artists."

This spring, LaChanze is a producer on Buena Vista Social Club and Purpose, and she's a producer on the long-running The Outsiders. But besides new works, she is also planning on making sure Childress gets the flowers she deserves.

"One of my missions in life is to have her work produced, or at least heard, as much as I can, just her entire canon, her entire canon," LaChanze emphasizes. "Just like August Wilson. I want all of Alice Childress' work done in some form or fashion." She then turns to the pillow of Childress behind her on the couch, saying, "I am constantly manifesting her presence. I'm like, 'What do you think, Alice? What do you think about this moment?' I just go by instinct, but I think she's in my head."