Pulitzer Winner 'Purpose' Brings Its Original Broadway Cast to the Geffen Playhouse

Phylicia Rashad directs the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins family drama, which starts previews in Westwood on Wednesday, opens Nov. 19 and has been extended through Dec. 20.

By Herald Staff · Nov. 9, 2026, 2:30 PM ET

The Geffen Playhouse in Westwood on a sunny day: a low, tan brick building with red clay tile roofs, arched doorways and olive trees, a tall black Geffen banner on a pole out front, with a white high-rise office tower and a glass office building rising behind it. — The Geffen Playhouse on Le Conte Avenue in Westwood, where the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning Purpose begins previews Nov. 11 in the Gil Cates Theater and runs through Dec. 20. Photo: Minnaert / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (license).

WESTWOOD — Purpose, the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins family drama that won both the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, begins previews at the Geffen Playhouse on Wednesday, Nov. 11, with its entire original Broadway cast and with Phylicia Rashad directing again. It's the play's Los Angeles premiere, and it opens the Geffen's 2026/2027 season, the theater announced when rehearsals started on Oct. 20.

The run has already grown. The Geffen first scheduled Purpose through Dec. 13, then added a week "due to popular demand," and it now plays through Sunday, Dec. 20, in the Gil Cates Theater at 10886 Le Conte Ave. Opening night is Thursday, Nov. 19.

A Political Family Under One Roof

The play centers on the Jaspers, "generations of a powerful Black political family under one roof where nothing stays buried for long," as the Geffen describes it. When the youngest son comes home, the family moves to protect its public image of leadership and moral authority, and private grievances, betrayals and questions of identity start coming out. The theater calls the play "provocative, often hilarious, and ultimately a devastating exploration of legacy and the cost of believing in something bigger than yourself."

The cast that originated the roles in the Broadway and Steppenwolf Theatre Company production is coming along: Harry Lennix as Solomon "Sonny" Jasper; LaTanya Richardson Jackson as Claudine Jasper; Glenn Davis as Solomon "Junior" Jasper; Jon Michael Hill as Nazareth "Naz" Jasper; Alana Arenas as Morgan Jasper; and Kara Young as Aziza Houston. Young won the 2025 Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the role, according to the Geffen's preview of the season.

Anyone set on seeing Young should book early. She plays Aziza through the 1 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Nov. 29, and Nija Okoro, whose stage credits include Jitney and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, takes over the role starting with that evening's 6:30 p.m. show and continues through closing.

Rashad Back in the Director's Chair

Rashad, who staged the play on Broadway, directs the Los Angeles run as well. Jacobs-Jenkins' earlier plays include Appropriate and Everybody, and the Pulitzer for Purpose cemented him, in the Geffen's words, as "one of the boldest, most essential voices shaping American theater right now." The Broadway production's long list of producers included David Stone, Debra Martin Chase, Marc Platt and LaChanze and the Shubert Organization, along with Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

The production was the headline of the Geffen's lineup when Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney announced the season in March. The five-show season, a mix of world, West Coast and Los Angeles premieres, runs through July 4, 2027.

It also lands during a busy month for Los Angeles stages. The Pasadena Playhouse opened the long-awaited L.A. premiere of the Tony-winning musical Passing Strange on Sunday, and that show runs through Nov. 29, according to Theatre Commons LA. Across town, CAP UCLA presents the U.S. premiere of the Czech-language opera Kafka's Letter to His Father at the Nimoy in Westwood from Nov. 12 to 14, the university said.

If You Go

Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 1 and 6:30 p.m., with no shows on Mondays or Tuesdays, according to the Geffen's schedule. Tickets currently run $57 to $184 and are sold at geffenplayhouse.org or by phone at 310-208-2028.

The play runs 2 hours and 50 minutes with one intermission. The Geffen recommends it for ages 12 and up and notes that it includes profanity, a gunshot sound effect and discussions of suicide. Anyone in crisis can call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Original reporting by The Los Angeles Herald, drawing on announcements and show pages from the Geffen Playhouse, Theatre Commons LA and CAP UCLA, as linked above.