Jitney was written in 1979 and first produced in 1982 at the small Allegheny Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When Wilson took his mother to see that production they arrived by jitney. That was followed by a separate production at Penumbra Theatre in
St. Paul, Minnesota. After Wilson had a series of plays produced on Broadway, Eddie Gilbert, artistic director of the Pittsburgh Public Theater, read the 1979 script and asked to produce it. In response, Wilson returned to Pittsburgh in 1996 re-writing it extensively for what is referred to as its professional premiere, which was directed by
Marion McClinton. This was the first Pittsburgh Cycle premiere not to be directed by
Lloyd Richards. Over the next four years there were up to 20 productions nationwide, many with the same core cast as in Pittsburgh, including the 1997 production at the
Crossroads Theatre in New Jersey, which was directed by Walter Dallas, and the 1998 production at Boston's
Huntington Theatre Company, directed by McClinton. Wilson continued working on the script.
Jitney opened
Off-Broadway at the
Second Stage Theatre on April 25, 2000, and closed on September 10, because another play was coming in. The play next moved to the Union Square Theatre on September 19, 2000, where it closed on January 28, 2001.
Jitney ran successfully Off-Broadway, and was the only one of the 10 Pittsburgh Cycle plays not to appear promptly on Broadway, possibly because Wilson's previous play had lost money, making investors cautious. Directed by Marion McClinton, the cast featured four actors who had been with it almost continuously since 1996:
Anthony Chisholm (Fielding), Paul Butler (Becker),
Willis Burks (Shealy) and
Stephen McKinley Henderson (Turnbo).
Jitney went on to London, and ran at the
National Theatre's
Lyttelton Theatre from October 16, 2001, through November 21, 2001. It won the
Olivier Award for best play of the year. Directed by McClinton, it featured much of the New York cast. McClinton's production moved to
San Francisco's
Curran Theatre in early 2002. The play has been performed often in regional theater, including at the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 2001, the
Denver Center for the Performing Arts in 2002,
Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C., in 2007, and the
Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., in 2008. The
Broadway premiere of
Jitney began previews at the
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on December 28, 2016, and opened on January 19, 2017. The play closed on March 12, 2017. The play, produced by the
Manhattan Theatre Club, was directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, with a cast featuring
John Douglas Thompson (Becker),
Brandon J. Dirden (Booster),
André Holland (Youngblood),
Carra Patterson (Rena),
Michael Potts (Turnbo),
Anthony Chisholm (Fielding),
Keith Randolph Smith (Doub), Harvy Blanks (Shealy) and Ray Anthony Thomas (Philmore). ==Characters==