How ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ Star Kandi Burruss Is Helping Make ‘A New Broadway’ as a Producer

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Kandi Burruss is a reality TV star, a music industry veteran, and an entrepreneur — and now, she’s a Broadway producer. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: A former mainstay of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and a longtime member of the R&B girl group Xscape, Burruss is currently a producer on the new Broadway revival of “Othello” starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal.

But she got her first Broadway producing credit on the play “Thoughts of a Colored Man” in 2021 — just after Broadway’s COVID lockdown, at a time that was one of the theater industry’s most challenging moments. “’Thoughts of a Colored Man’ closed before I wanted it to — I cried,” Burruss admitted on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast.

But the experience didn’t deter her, and she went on to produce the starry, strong-selling revival of “The Piano Lesson” (starring Samuel L.

Jackson and John David Washington) and “The Wiz.” For each of her shows, she’s served as a tireless promoter during every media opportunity that comes her way via the “Real Housewives” or Xscape or any of her other projects. “I think this is a new Broadway,” Burruss said. “I definitely feel like I did contribute to helping it become popular with people who didn’t normally think about going to a Broadway show.” She added, “You have to allow people to know that Broadway is for everyone.” Burruss performed in musical theater as a kid, and her current involvement in Broadway fulfills a childhood dream.