Stage Door News

New York: Alexis Gordon will understudy the role of Ma for “Room” on Broadway

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Londoner Alexis Gordon is headed for Broadway.

Gordon, who starred as Ma in Emma Donoghue’s stage adaptation of her novel, Room, at the Grand Theatre and Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre, will understudy Tony Award-winner Adrienne Warren in the upcoming Broadway production.

The play, already produced in the U.K., at London’s Grand Theatre and Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre, opens at Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre in preview April 3 with the official opening April 17.

Gordon couldn’t be reached immediately, but Grand artistic director Dennis Garnhum was elated.

“We are so incredibly proud that London’s own will be on Broadway as an understudy,” he said.

“I can’t imagine her not going on stage at least once at some point. It’s such a demanding role. The creative team was so impressed with her, as we all were when she performed the role here. It seems like such an exciting opportunity. How lucky for Broadway.”

Warren, who won the 2021 best actress Tony for playing Tina Turner in the Tina biomusical, was cast month.

Room is the story of Ma, who was kidnapped and raped as a teen and held captive in a room for seven years with Jack, the son she bore in captivity. It’s told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack, who’s unaware of the world beyond the room and content living in the world his mother has created for them until they escape and must adjust to the outside world.

By Joe Belanger for lfpress.com.

Photo: Alexis Gordon.