Cast and Creative Team Set for SLIPPIN’ THROUGH THE CRACKS: The Bobby Rush Musical

The cast and creative team have been revealed for the world premiere of Slippin’ Through the Cracks: The Bobby Rush Musical, the new musical based on the life of Grammy Award-winning living legend Bobby Rush, at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Mississippi. The production will play a limited engagement from October 20 through November 1, 2026, only at New Stage’s Jane Reid-Petty Theatre Center.

The cast of Slippin’ Through the Cracks features three actors playing Rush at various stages of his life. Mark Henderson plays Older Bobby Rush, Rajeer Alford plays Bobby Rush, and Jaden White plays Young Bobby Rush. The cast also includes Joy Brashears Amerson, Grady Champion, Nancy Cheney, Melessie Clark, Jayla Lomax, Nicholas Patrick, Quinton Powell, Chris Roebuck, Vershaune Stamps, and Joe Tomberlin. They play a variety of iconic real-life characters in Rush’s life including guitarist and singer-songwriter Chuck Berry, singer-songwriter and dancer James Brown, Chess Records founder Leonard Chess, guitarist and singer-songwriter B.B. King, singer koko Taylor, musician Rufus Thomas, singer-songwriter and musician Muddy Waters, and singer and guitarist Howlin’ Wolf.

Slippin’ Through the Cracks features a score by the iconic Bobby Rush, is conceived by Stephen Lloyd Helper, and features a book by Rush and Helper. The production is co-directed by Helper and Matthew Johnson Harris, who will also choreograph.

Slippin’ Through the Cracks will feature set and projection design by Omid Akbari, costume design by Theresa J. Bush and Deonica Davis, lighting design by Anna Dunbar and sound design by Callie Jackson. Jeremy Jones is Musical Director and provides Orchestrations.

Slippin’ Through the Cracks is a world premiere musical that tells the foot-stomping and funky blues story of Bobby Rush – from a sharecropper boy sneaking into juke joints, through the equally segregated, hot blues scene of Chicago alongside Muddy Waters and B. B. King, to the freedom of the worldwide stage. Blending live music with storytelling, the show traces Rush’s journey through American history and the blues, grounded by a message of perseverance, resilience and joy: ‘If a dirt-poor country boy, with no education, no opportunities, faced with great troubles, can make it through life doing what he loves, so can you.’