EXCLUSIVE Ozark actor McKinley Belcher III will join the cast of Broadway’s upcoming Death of a Salesman revival starring Wendell Pierce and Sharon D Clarke this fall, producers announced today.
Belcher will play Happy Loman, son of Willy (Pierce) and Linda (Clarke) Loman. The revival begins previews September 19 at the Hudson Theatre for a strictly limited 17-week engagement. Belcher joins other previously announced cast members Khris Davis as Biff and André De Shields as Willy’s brother Ben.
The production reimagines, for the first time on Broadway, Arthur Miller’s classic play from the perspective of an African American family, living and working in a White, Capitalist world.
Produced by Cindy Tolan, Elliott & Harper Productions and Kwame Kwei-Armah, Death of a Salesman is directed by Miranda Cromwell, who co-directed the London production alongside Marianne Elliott.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to step into the continuum to tell the story of this great American play,” said Belcher in a statement, “and through the eyes and hearts of a Loman family that looks like me. We’ll be standing on the shoulders of such a beautiful and lauded West End production, and the many iconic storytellers who’ve lived Arthur Miller’s words before us. I’m in awe of the talent in the room, from Wendell, Sharon, André and my brother Khris. It’s an honor to be back on Broadway unpacking the meaning of family and our ever-elusive American Dream.”
Belcher made his Broadway debut as Private Louis Henson in the 2020 production of A Soldier’s Play starring David Alan Grier and Blair Underwood.
Producers today also announced members of the revival’s creative team, including Anna Fleischle (scenic and co-costume design), Sarita Fellows (co-costume design), Jen Schriever (lighting design), Mikaal Sulaiman (sound design), Femi Temowo (composer), and Nikiya Mathis (hair design).
In addition to his role as Agent Trevor Evans on Netflix’s Ozark, Belcher appeared in Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, the Simon Curtis-directed film The Art of Racing in the Rain, and can currently be seen as the series lead in David Simon’s We Own This City for HBO. He will next be seen in a recurring role in Netflix’s live action adaptation of One Piece, and has recently come off playing the pivotal series role of convicted murderer and death row inmate Anthony Carter in the Fox drama series The Passage.
Belcher also played Samuel Diggs, a formerly enslaved and self-educated laborer with the hopes of becoming a doctor on the PBS series Mercy Street, and appeared on David Simon’s HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero as the blue-collar Dwayne taking care of his diabetic mother. Other credits include Power, Mapplethorpe and Go for Sisters, and on stage he starred in The Light at MCC Theater.
Belcher is represented by Gersh and Anonymous Content.