Purpose, the play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins directed by Phylicia Rashad that won both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize last year, has officially recouped its $5.25 million capitalization, more than nine months after closing on Broadway.
Producers announced the recoupment today, saying it was achieved with the aid of the New York State Tax Credit as well as the operating profits from the Broadway run. The production’s investors have received a full return of their capital contributions.
The acclaimed production played an extended 27-week engagement at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater, where it broke the box office record for highest grossing week ($1,020,309) in Hayes history. The play, which ran from February 25-August 31, 2025, starred LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennix, Jon Michael Hill, Glenn Davis, Alana Arenas, and Kara Young.
The original Broadway cast will reunite for a production at the Geffen in Los Angeles this fall, once again directed by Rashad. Additional productions are being mounted nationally and internationally.
The synopsis: “For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black political power and familial duty.”
The play was inspired, in part, by the history and family of civil rights icon Jesse Jackson.
Purpose was produced on Broadway by David Stone, Debra Martin Chase, Marc Platt, LaChanze, Rashad V. Chambers, Aaron Glick, Universal Theatrical Group, Eastern Standard Time, Trate Productions, Nancy Nagel Gibbs, James L. Nederlander, John Gore, ATG Entertainment, The Shubert Organization and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, presenting the production by Steppenwolf Theatre Company (the play was commissioned by Chicago’s Steppenwolf and had its world premiere there on March 24, 2024).
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