ANGELICA
CHÉRI
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Naveen Kumar
[WANTED] is the type of audacious and rollicking story that’s too often missing from American stages: proof that for as long as people have been kept down, there have been those who managed to find joy in fighting back.”
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Marina Kennedy
The score is compelling with soulful melodies, romantic ballads, and vibrant tunes. Songs complement the story beautifully. The numbers are memorable and wonderfully performed.
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Juan A. Ramirez
Chéri has a gift for theatricality, beautifully realized by Walker-Webb’s staging. What they create — along with the insanely talented ensemble — is an often breathtaking musical as big as its ambitions, and as fun-loving as its gun-toting heroines.
BROADWAY PREVIEWS BEGIN OCTOBER 15
GUN & POWDER
is now WANTED
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big announcement
Debbie Allen Joins In-Development Maya Angelou Play With Music
Debbie Allen has joined the creative team of in-development Maya Angelou play with music Phenomenal Woman, Maya Angelou, written by Angelica Chéri. Allen, soon to be back on Broadway directing a revival of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, will direct the work, which is aiming for a 2028 world premiere to coincide with Angelou's centennial.
Latest News
A Broadway writer and a composer spin family history into gold
Photo by Joelle Grace Taylor/For The Washington Post
Featured Work
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Stage
Wanted
Wanted is inspired by the true story of Mary and Martha Clarke, Angelica's great-great aunts, African American twin sisters who passed for White and were notorious outlaws.
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Stage
Berta, Berta
After committing an unforgivable crime, Leroy is granted one final wish: a chance to make amends with his long-lost lover Berta. Their reunion swells from a quarrelsome conjuring of the past to an impassioned plot to escape their impending fate.
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Stage
Phenomenal Woman
Written by Angelica Chéri and directed by Debbie Allen, PHENOMENAL WOMAN, MAYA ANGELOU is a play with music and the first and only stage production about the iconic figure authorized by the estate of the beloved poet, author, teacher and civil-rights leader.
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Screen
GOD FATHER OF HARLEM
A gangster named Bumpy Johnson makes his way in Harlem during the 1960s. A TV prequel to the 2007 film, 'American Gangster', which centered on the criminal enterprise of Frank Lucas.
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Screen
Highway to heaven
A reboot of the 80’s Classic TV Show HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, Angelica and co-writer Cathryn Humphris wrote the Lifetime Network Movie HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, starring Jill Scott and Barry Watson.
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Screen
Keyshia Cole: This is My Story
Adopted at a young age, Keyshia Cole overcomes a difficult childhood to pursue her dream of becoming a singer. As her star begins to rise, Keyshia reunites with her two sisters while struggling to keep her biological mother in rehab.
Meet
Angelica
About
Angelica Chéri is an NAACP Award–nominated playwright, musical theatre bookwriter and lyricist, screenwriter, and poet. She was named by Variety as one of Broadway’s Top Ten Stars to Watch in 2025, and by The Washington Post as part of its “Next 50,” recognizing individuals shaping American culture and society in 2026.
She is the book writer and lyricist of the Broadway-bound musical WANTED (formerly Gun & Powder), which will open at the James Earl Jones Theater in Fall 2026 following acclaimed runs at Signature Theatre and Paper Mill Playhouse, where it was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick. With WANTED, Chéri becomes the first Black woman to write both the book and lyrics of a wholly original Broadway musical.