In 2011 Chris Rock tried something new: acting in a play, eight shows a week, with no microphone and no punchlines of his own. He made his Broadway debut in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s dark comedy The Motherf**ker with the Hat, which opened on April 11 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
Rock played Ralph D., the smooth-talking sponsor of Jackie, a recovering addict played by Bobby Cannavale. Anna D. Shapiro directed a cast that also included Elizabeth Rodriguez, Annabella Sciorra and Yul Vázquez, and the production became one of the talked-about plays of the season.
For Rock, it was a chance to show range beyond the stand-up persona that made him famous, and a reminder that the sharpest comics are often serious actors waiting for the right material.
Sources: BroadwayWorld.
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