A Tale of Two Brothers

Williamstown Theater Festival

by Jay Blotcher and photographs by Charles Erickson, June 26, 2008

One could forgive Broadway director Thomas Kail for resting on his laurels. His hit musical “In the Heights,” a “Rent”-like fairy tale about inner-city kids with unshakable dreams, just was named Best Musical at the Tony Awards, and won in three other categories. But while the show continues to sell-out audiences at the Richard Rodgers Theater, this restless wunderkind (Kail is all of 30) is in rehearsals for a new play several degrees less giddy and candy-coated than his current project.

“The best thing always is to go back to work,” Kail says. “That keeps us grounded.”

“Broke-ology” will have its world premiere at the acclaimed Williamstown Theater Festival, opening on July 9 and running through July 20.

“I really wanted to work on a straight play immediately after ‘Heights,’” Kail explained by telephone from New York City. “I didn’t know it would be the day after the Tonys [were announced].”

This modern kitchen-sink drama by Nathan Louis Jackson was brought to Kail’s attention last November. It was a chaotic time for Kail: the scrappy, heart-on-the-sleeve “Heights” had just been plucked from a small off-Broadway venue and was being polished for its Broadway debut. He could easily have passed on the project, but “I responded very strongly,” he says. “I was struck by the thematic material.”

The play concerns an African American family named King who have quietly suffered the radical and economic injustices of everyday life. Another test of their unity comes when the father falls ill and his two sons are summoned home. As they interact with the headstrong paterfamilias, family obligation joust with personal dreams. Kail recognized the universality of the story.