Shonda Rhimes, Gabrielle Union, and Jada Pinkett Smith Sign On To Produce Kerry Washington’s New Broadway Play

Shonda Rhimes and Kerry Washington are teaming up again, only this time it’s not for TGIT. The former Scandal star is preparing for her new role, a Broadway production, and she’s getting some help from her famous friends.

In addition to Rhimes, Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, Jada Pinkett Smith, Steve Stoute, and Washington’s husband, Nnamdi Asomugha, have added their names to the list of producers for American Son, a new play that wrestles with race and law enforcement in America.

Starring Washington and Steven Pasquale, and penned by award-winning playwright Christopher Demos-Brown, American Son is a four-person drama about estranged parents who are forced to come together to find out what happened to their teenage son after he’s detained by police. The play is set in a Florida police station and will no-doubt deal with many of the emotions that have bubbled up over the past few years.

“Christopher Demos-Brown has written a play that dives deep into the big questions of who we are as a nation by exploring the intimate relationships within a family caught at the crossroads of love, loss, identity and community,” Washington said in a statement. “After reading the script I was immediately enthralled by the world of the play and the gripping circumstances that these characters are facing.”

While it has yet to make its Broadway debut, American Son won rave reviews when premiered in 2016, earning Demos-Brown the 2016 Laurents/Hatcher Award for best new work by an emerging playwright. It’ll hit the Great White Way on November 4, running for 16 weeks at the Booth Theatre in New York City.