Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker is taking his talents to the stage for the very first time, starring in the Broadway revival of Hughie. The Eugine O'Neill play will see Whitaker portray the lead of hustler Ernie Smith.

| HISTORY LESSON: STARS WHO PLAYED HISTORICAL CHARACTERS |

According to The Guardian, Hughie is set in 1928 and is about a night clerk of a fleapit hotel with memories of Hughie, a former clerk whose death set Smith into a drunken downward spiral.

O'Neill wrote the play in the 1940s and it was first brought to the Broadway stage back in 1964 with Jason Robards starring as the lead. The new revival will be directed by Michael Grandage, who won a 2010 Tony Award for his direction in the production Red. Other revivals include one in 1975 starring Ben Gazzara and another in 1996 starring Al Pacino.

The Hughie revival starring Whitaker will be produced by Darren Bagert along with the Michael Grandage Company and the Shubert Organization. The play will open in spring 2016.

Watch Forest Whitaker talk the state of Black men in America in the BET original clip below:

(Photo: Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for MLK Community Foundation)

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