Swing into Harlem in the ’90s with ‘New Jack City: Live’ on stage

1991’s New Jack City was in many ways a watershed moment for American cinema. A bleak parable of the Reagan-era crack epidemic, Melvin Van Peebles’ film was masterfully cast, with Wesley Snipes as drug lord Nino Brown and a pre-SUV Ice T playing Detective Scotty Appleton. It still hits and is always worth a watch.

Which brings us to the present day, in which playwright Je’Caryous Johnson has adapted the film into a touring stage production. Johnson doesn’t skimp on star power: Allen Payne returns as the malevolent Gee Money, Naughty by Nature’s Treach steps into the Nino Brown role and Big Daddy Kane portrays Van Peeble’s Stone. Solid.

7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, Walt Disney Theater, Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 S. Magnolia Ave., drphillipscenter.org, $77.54-$160.74.

This article appears in May 3-9, 2023.