Corey Hawkins, who will be leading the upcoming, much-anticipated reboot of “24” on the Fox network early next year, will return to Broadway in the upcoming revival of “Six Degrees of Separation.”
Hawkins will star as the brash con artist opposite Allison Janney and John Benjamin Hickey in John Guare’s play, which was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for drama and received a best-play Tony Award nomination.
The plot of the play was inspired by the real-life story of David Hampton, a con man and robber who managed to convince a number of people in the 1980s that he was the son of actor Sidney Poitier. After the play became a dramatic and financial success, Hampton was tried and acquitted for harassment of Guare; he felt he was due a share of the profits that he ultimately never received.
Guare adapted the play for a film released in 1993, starring Will Smith, directed by Fred Schepisi. Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, Ian McKellen, and Anthony Michael Hall rounded out the cast. It’s a noteworthy early Will Smith performance that saw him play against type. For her performance, Stockard Channing received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress that year.
The real David Hampton died in 2003, at age 39, at Beth Israel Hospital. He had been living in a small room at an AIDS residence, according to an AP report that year, and was trying to start work on a book about his life.
The Broadway revival with Corey Hawkins plans to open at the Barrymore Theatre in April 2017. Trip Cullman will direct.
Hawkins previous stage credits includes playing Tybalt in a 2013 Broadway revival of “Romeo and Juliet.”
One can only wonder if this “Six Degrees” revival, especially if it’s a successful run, makes the leap to the big screen afterward; it certainly wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened, as Hollywood seems even more interested in producing films based on existing known properties.
Before then, we’ll see Hawkins leading “24: Legacy” premiering on Fox TV after the Super Bowl in early 2017.
Watch a trailer for the 1993 film based on the play, below:
