Theater for the New City presents a return engagement of Smokey Stevens in I Just Want to Tell Somebody after its New York premiere in 2022. A one-man, two character theater production directed by Stephen Byrd, the production dramatizes Stevens’ meteoric rise in the entertainment industry and his life long battle with drugs in which he, at long last, prevailed. Smokey plays both himself and his nemesis, a sarcastic doppelganger called “D MAN.” The play ushers us through modern moments of theater history that were Smokey’s triumphs and the journey through drug usage that was nearly his undoing.
Ronald “Smokey” Stevens earned a place on Broadway thanks to raw talent and his wits, becoming a featured ensemble member of such productions as Bubbling Brown Sugar, Inacent Black, Dreamgirls, his own musical Rollin’ on the T.O.B.A. and tours of One Mo’ Time and Ain’t Misbehavin’. His films include The Wiz, The Cotton Club and Times Square. He danced with such greats as tap master Charles “Honi” Coles, Lucille Ball, Cab Calloway and Gregory Hines, to name a few. He’s now Artistic Director of Capital City Readers Theatre in Washington, DC, recipient of the NAACP 11th Annual Theater Arts Award and a documentary filmmaker.
