Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss Tucker continues to plant her “money trees” all over the entertainment industry, including Broadway.
She and her husband, Todd Tucker, are a part of the producing team for August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, which opened its preview run in a sold-out theater on Broadway.
The Piano Lesson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play starring Academy Award® winner Samuel L. Jackson, Screen Actors Guild Award® nominee John David Washington, and Emmy® and Tony® nominee Danielle Brooks. Tony® nominee LaTanya Richardson Jackson directs it. The play centers on a feud between two siblings (Brooks and Washington). They are at odds over the fate of the family’s prized heirloom, a piano carved with their ancestors’ faces. Their uncle (Jackson) is in the middle while battling his own demons.
The play returned to Broadway more than 30 years after its debut. Kandi Burruss Tucker and Todd Tucker announced their involvement last May in a joint statement,
“We couldn’t be more honored and excited to join the producing team of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. As we continue to push to diversify the Broadway audience, this all-star team and cast is a dream come true for our next venture on Broadway.”
This is the couple’s second Broadway play. In 2021, the Tuckers joined a producing team that included Emmy winner Sheryl Lee Ralph and actress Samira Wiley for Thoughts of a Colored Man. It was the first Broadway show written (Kennan Scott II) and directed (Steve Broadnax III) by black men with a black man in the lead role. It was then Kandi expressed her interest and love for Broadway. The Real Housewives of Atlanta star told Entertainment Tonight,
“I’m super excited. I have added another little feather to my cap. You know how much I love Broadway. So, to have an opportunity to join such a wonderful team, I mean, I’m so excited about this play. It’s just amazing. I’m overjoyed. I couldn’t wait to tell everybody — because I tell everybody, ‘Oh yeah, I’m doing this. I’m doing that…’ — but to come on board as a producer of a Broadway play is a major thing for me.”
Outside of Broadway, the Tuckers as a couple and individuals have produced several projects, including their first off-Broadway play, A Mother’s Love, and Bravo’s Kandi and Gang.
The Piano Lesson officially opens on October 13, 2022. The play will run for 16 weeks at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. For ticket information and to see the complete list of producers, visit The Piano Lesson.