NEW YORK, United States — David Heron’s Off Broadway romantic comedy Love and Marriage and New York City returned to the New York stage in triumph last Sunday, June 22, with its silver anniversary presentation at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC) in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
The play, also produced and directed by Heron, was presented as a one night only staged reading production in celebration of New York City’s annual Caribbean American Heritage Month festivities, held across the city each June.
A large and appreciative audience, including several stars of stage, film and television, took their seats at JPAC for the first performance of Heron’s play in New York since its Off Broadway run at The Billie Holiday Theatre in 2007, and erupted with a spontaneous five minute standing ovation at the end of the presentation.
Set in 1999, Love and Marriage and New York City tells the story of two Jamaican born couples residing in Manhattan who decide to get married strictly for green card purposes only to discover that once love enters the equation, no marriage is ever purely about business.
Following its world première production in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1999, the play would go on to make its American début in South Florida in 2000, before subsequent tours to the United Kingdom in 2002 and 2003, culminating in its eventual Off Broadway run in 2006.
The four-member cast of the play’s 25th anniversary presentation was comprised of actress Denise Hunt; James Duke Walker; Gabrielle C Archer; and making his American stage acting début, Jamaican-born Shevrado Oliver.
Reading stage manager for the production was actor and musician Bill “Triple 5” Vila.
Heron staged the production against large, panoramic backdrop images of the glittering Manhattan skyline, according to him, “literally making New York City the fifth character in the play”.
Among those in attendance was former Love and Marriage and New York City cast members Janel C Scarborough and Hector Lincoln.
In his pre-show remarks, Heron commented on the irony that a play he wrote 26 years ago about Jamaicans trying to get green cards proved to be the vehicle by which he got his own green card, and that the themes in his script seem even more relevant today than when the play was written.
He also took the opportunity to announce that the television series pilot From Yard — on which both he and Oliver worked some two years ago and which had its red carpet première in Kingston in 2023 — has now found a home on popular streaming platform Tubi. It is expected to make its broadcast première this month.
Love and Marriage and New York City cast and crew (from left): Former cast member Janel C Scarborough, David Heron, Bill “Triple 5” Vila, Shevrado Oliver, Denise Hunt, Gabrielle C Archer, and James Duke Walker. (Photo: Tricia Blackman)