Purpose on Broadway: Family Secrets and Generational Truths
I heard Branden Jacobs-Jenkins had a new play out, and I had to see it. The night before, Purpose had won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Purpose is a play about the Jasper family written by Tony Award-winning Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by two-time Tony Award-winning Phylicia Rashad (ICON!). The drama unfolds over a weekend when the youngest son, Naz Jasper, comes home to Illinois with his best friend, Aziza (portrayed by the outstanding and Tony-nominated Kara Young). Aziza is surprised to learn that Naz comes from a big Black political family with ties to the civil rights movement.
The Jaspers are not the only family to have their own burdens. Naz's return, with Aziza's help, brings years of tension and long-held family beliefs to the surface, and a wave of generational trauma comes rushing back. The tension between what the Jaspers try to present and their reality culminates in one birthday dinner for the matriarch, Claudine Jasper (a dinner Naz humorously warns the audience about just minutes before things explode).
In Act One, everyone still plays their roles, clinging to their performative masks but by the second act, the masks start to crack. In one especially sharp and funny moment, Naz, portrayed by Jon Michael Hill (who also serves as the narrator), gives us a brutally honest and amusing look at what it was like to grow up in that house. Harry Lennix plays the father, minister, and civil rights leader Solomon Jasper. He retired and now dedicates his time to taking care of his bees. However, disguised by this peaceful routine, he is a profoundly regretful man, owing to poor relations with his sons and a marriage that was not wholeheartedly respected. (Men!)
LaTanya Richardson Jackson's character, Claudine Jasper, is the mother who holds the entire machine together. She is outgoing and belongs to a royal family, yet she is extremely concerned about the family's reputation and tries so hard to preserve it, giving out NDAs like candy from her purse. The eldest son, Solomon, Jr. (Glenn Davis), has just been released after serving a 24-month jail sentence due to fraud in the campaign. He wants to explain himself, but nobody is ready to listen. He made his own choice, yet obviously, the weight of his father, all the expectations with which the family swayed him, and the name he had to live up to could not leave him without his marks.
His wife, Morgan Jasper, is also going to spend time in prison because of her involvement in the scandal. The connection between Morgan and Solomon Jr. is not very sound, and by the final act, we will find Morgan very much enraged at not only her husband but also the Jasper family in general.
And then there is Nazareth or Naz Jasper. He walked out of theology school to pursue a career in photography, an act that his family considers a betrayal of all their beliefs. He comes home with secrets and a strong sense of how dangerous it would be to be honest in this family. However, Aziza is as uncensored and adorable as ever, and even he finds out that his family has secrets that he was not aware of. It was a crazy and strong evening of theater to see all these large personas collide at the Hayes Theater. Purpose poses the question, what happens when the shiny legacy of a rich family is required to confront the mess below? It tackles identity, truth, duty, and what being a carrier of a name is all about, particularly when carrying the name comes along with expectations. It is a very particular narrative, but no matter how specific the story is, the themes resonate with everyone who has ever attempted to deal with family, legacy, or discovering their own voice.
The production itself was beautiful, engaging, funny, and full of heart, enough to make you laugh, reflect, and maybe even confront some blind spots of your own.
One more thing worth highlighting: the set! Recently, Broadway has moved in the direction of the minimalist stage design—perhaps due to limited resources, perhaps it is fashion—but Jacobs-Jenkins shows never cut corners with the design! As in his 2024 production Appropriate, the set here is heavily detailed and it seems like part of the characters themselves. The furniture, the family picture, the dining room—all of these form part of the story. You sense the past of that house when the lights go up the first time and it is a good reminder that someone put so much thought into the design and care that went into it before this new era of Broadway where we're bombarded with black walls and blank floors.
Bravo to Faye Armon-Troncoso (Set Decoration & Props), Todd Rosenthal (Scenic Design), and Amith Chandrashaker (Lighting Design).
Purpose is now extended through August 31st at the Hayes Theater.
🎟️ Get your tickets here.
Please go check this one out, but be prepared for the truth to hit hard between every laugh and cry.
And snuggle up, because there is little to no leg room. :)
