Prolific Producer Brian Anthony Moreland Is Helping To Change The Landscape of Broadway

This past month August Wilson's The Piano Lesson was nominated for twoTony Awards, including Best Revival of A Play. The Piano Lesson is part of a series of ten plays that Wilson wrote called The American Century Cycle. These masterpieces recount what it is like to be African American during each decade of the twentieth century.

LaTanya Richardson and Brian Anthony Moreland at the 2023 Drama League AwardsPhoto byJenny Anderson

The Piano Lesson originally opened in 1987 at Yale Repertory Theater and then debuted on Broadway in1990 where it won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, the Peabody Award and was nominated for the a Tony Award for Best Play. "August wrote this play so America could experience Black life and understand the experience of Black Americans,” says producer Brian Anthony Moreland who brought the revival back to Broadway. “So the play is not just for Black people, it’s for all people.”

The drama revolves around the Charles family and their treasured piano which is intertwined with their brutal and painful past. It's 1936 and the family members who keep the piano have migrated from Mississippi to a house in Pittsburgh. This stunning upright, which contains the carved faces of their family during their enslavement, was traded for two of their enslaved ancestors by their white master.

This critically lauded revival, which starred Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Brooks and John David Washington was directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who made her Broadway directorial debut and is the first woman to ever direct an August Wilson play on Broadway. Also, The Piano Lesson broke records as highest grossing August Wilson play ever. Also, the play is the highest grossing revival of the 2023 season. And now, especially when Broadway theaters are not selling the same number of tickets they did before the pandemic, this is an astonishing feat.

Brian Anthony MorelandPhoto byCourtesy Brian Anthony Moreland

When producer Brian Anthony Moreland was asked why he decided to bring The Piano Lesson back to Broadway after more than three decades, Moreland answered without hesitation. At the forefront was LaTanya Richardson Jackson as a director. "To have an opportunity to work with her is a dream come true," shares Moreland.

And then there was Samuel L. Jackson, who actually was in that original 1987 production at Yale. "Sam Jackson is the heartbeat of the show. He was the heartbeat for the cast. His character, Doaker Charles, is the heartbeat of the play," says Moreland. "He gives a quiet, graceful, layered performance. It’s what he embodies both, as a human and in that character."

Brian Anthony Moreland, who has a deep connection for The Piano Lesson and August Wilson, was eager to bring his work back to Broadway. The last Wilson play to be produced on the Great White Way was in 2017. “Broadway was without August Wilson’s words for quite some time. Too long. Every year their should be a Wilson play for us to learn from,” says Moreland.

“Also we, as Americans, are still healing from the murder of George Floyd and our quest for equality for all human beings," he adds. "This show is about learning and embracing the past so you can prosper and grow in your future.”

Moreland shared more.

Brian Anthony Moreland and Kandi Burruss, one of The Piano Lesson's producing partnersPhoto byCourtesy Brian Anthony Moreland

When did you first discover August Wilson's work and why did it resonate with you?

In high school! I had a teacher who gave me his play Fences to read. And I thought, these are my people. The rich language, the long passages of thought is so relatable. It captured my ancestors. And the words fit in my mouth with ease.

How has producing The Piano Lesson changed you?

This play changed my life. It gave me a new family of friends and a deeper appreciation for what Broadway CAN BE, if given the support to do it.


The works you produce, like Macbeth, Funny Girl, American Buffalo, Thoughts of a Colored Man, are so eclectic and have such range. What do you look for in a production?

Story! I wish I had a metrics. I look for a story that moves me. If I go to bed and wake up thinking about it…then it is the show I want to produce.

You are bringing The Wiz back to Broadway. What was it about the show inspired you to take it on?

Black Excellence. For many, The Wiz was the first show to expose Black people to Broadway. The Wiz as a show was and is ground breaking to this day. No other show of color has won Tony Awards like The Wiz. We need it again to inspire, uplift and heal Broadway.

Also, I enjoy the lesson of home being within you. The journey of each person in The Wiz is to find that place where you belong. The HOME for us all.

What a brutal couple of years it has been for Broadway. Yet even in the aftermath of Covid-19 and not as many people coming to New York City, The Piano Lesson became the highest grossing August Wilson play ever and the highest grossing revival of the this 2023 Broadway season. What was your strategy?

Constanza Romero- Wilson, August Wilson’s widow and head of the estate, asked one thing of me: “Please create a new version of The Piano Lesson for today’s generation.” Tasked with this our director, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, was aligned with a passion to forge a new show void of the past incarnations. LaTanya, conceived this show from a female perspective, imbued with heart for Berneice [played by Danielle Brooks.]

The combination of Wilson’s words, with LaTanya’s vision and the dreamcast, made the doors of Broadway open. The strategy was simply to let the world know August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson was back on Broadway and John David Washington was making his Broadway debut, with first time Tony Award Nominee Samuel L. Jackson returning to a play that changed his life.

What an incredible cast you had. 


Latanya assembled a once in a lifetime magnificent cast that created an opportunity for a healing Broadway. We wanted to tell the world to come. And the entire company of The Piano Lesson rallied together to invite everyone to join us at The Barrymore theatre.

Also, we didn’t target a race or population. Rather we targeted every human that had a pulse to visit us. I brought on a producing parter named Kandi Burruss and Todd Tucker to really expose The Piano Lesson to new audiences. consequently we had many first time ticket buyers.Coming through a pandemic, The Piano Lesson brought people in droves, back to broadway. Broadway needed people and Piano Lesson brought them.

What do you believe is the future of Broadway?

Broadway will always survive as long as the doors remain open for new dreamers, innovators and collaborators. What worked for The Piano Lesson today, will not work for tomorrow. So we must keep growing, trying, learning and applying.