Wanted: Musical cast

Wanted Cast - Broadway musical

The announced Broadway cast of Wanted: The Legend of the Sisters Clarke currently centers on four performers: Solea Pfeiffer as Mary Clarke, Liisi LaFontaine as Martha Clarke, Ledisi as Tallulah Clarke and Luke James as Elijah. The production begins previews at the James Earl Jones Theatre on October 15, 2026, before an official opening on November 8. Additional casting has not yet been publicly confirmed, so names associated with the 2024 Paper Mill Playhouse production or the 2025 workshop should not automatically be treated as members of the Broadway company.

The Announced Broadway Cast

Solea Pfeiffer as Mary Clarke

Solea Pfeiffer plays Mary Clarke, one of the mixed-race twin sisters who leave their Texas home and become outlaws while trying to settle their mother's sharecropping debt. Pfeiffer has the longest connection to the role among the Broadway principals. She originated Mary in the 2020 Signature Theatre world premiere, when the musical was still titled Gun & Powder, and returned for the 2025 developmental workshop under its new title.

Mary is the sister most visibly attracted to the authority produced by their disguises, weapons and growing reputation. Her songs require a performer who can move between family intimacy, romantic bravado and moral alarm without making those impulses seem unrelated. Pfeiffer's previous stage work includes Eurydice in Hadestown, Penny Lane in Almost Famous, Satine in Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Eva Perón in New York City Center's Evita. Her clear upper register fits Ross Baum's large contemporary phrases, but the role also depends on the quieter moment when Mary's confidence starts to resemble compulsion.

Liisi LaFontaine as Martha Clarke

Liisi LaFontaine plays Martha Clarke, Mary's twin and the sister who remains more alert to the cost of passing as white. LaFontaine joined the musical for the 2024 Paper Mill Playhouse production and continued with the project during its 2025 workshop. Her return gives the Broadway staging a direct connection to Stevie Walker-Webb's Paper Mill version.

Martha often functions as Mary's resistance rather than her opposite. She agrees to the initial plan because Tallulah may lose the family home, but she becomes increasingly uneasy as robbery changes into violence and the sisters' borrowed identities affect people they love. Martha's relationship with Elijah also gives the show's racial argument a personal consequence. She can enter spaces that exclude him, though her access requires concealment. LaFontaine's credits include Deena Jones in the West End production of Dreamgirls, Satine in the West End company of Moulin Rouge! The Musical and the 2024 Paper Mill run of Gun & Powder.

Ledisi as Tallulah Clarke

Ledisi plays Tallulah Clarke, the sisters' mother and the character whose threatened home begins the outlaw plot. Her casting was announced in May 2026. The role is Ledisi's first principal Broadway assignment, though she previously worked as a standby in Caroline, or Change and appeared in a benefit presentation of Hair.

Tallulah cannot be reduced to the mother waiting for her daughters to return. She represents the economic pressure that sends them away, the family history they risk hiding and the moral claim behind their crimes. The sharecropping system keeps her working while debt continues to grow. Her daughters answer that legal theft with illegal action. Songs such as "Cotton" and "Gun & Powder" place Tallulah inside both the practical planning and the emotional argument.

Ledisi brings considerable gospel and rhythm-and-blues authority to Ross Baum's score. She has won a Grammy Award and portrayed Mahalia Jackson in the film Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story. That vocal background suits a score in which ancestral chorus writing and family testimony carry as much weight as conventional dialogue.

Luke James as Elijah

Luke James plays Elijah, joining the Broadway cast in an announcement made on June 23, 2026. James previously appeared on Broadway in Thoughts of a Colored Man and has built a recording, television and film career alongside his stage work.

Elijah's relationship with Martha tests the show's treatment of racial passing. Martha can move through white-controlled spaces while presenting herself as white, but Elijah has no comparable escape from racial scrutiny. His song "Invisible" examines the emotional damage created by that imbalance. Elijah's function is therefore larger than romantic interest. He forces Martha to consider whether survival through concealment can remain private when it changes how she relates to Black people who cannot make the same choice.

James has the vocal weight for Baum's rhythm-and-blues material, though the role will depend on dramatic precision. Elijah must challenge Martha without becoming a device that exists only to explain her conflict. The Broadway revisions have an opportunity to give his anger, affection and suspicion equal dramatic force.

Earlier Casts and Role Changes

The Broadway cast should be distinguished from the companies that developed the musical under its former title. At Signature Theatre in 2020, Pfeiffer played Mary, Emmy Raver-Lampman played Martha and the late Marva Hicks played Tallulah. Robert O'Hara directed that world premiere.

The 2024 Paper Mill Playhouse production used a substantially different principal company. Ciara Renée played Mary, LaFontaine played Martha, Jeannette Bayardelle played Tallulah, Aaron James McKenzie played Elijah and Hunter Parrish played Jesse Whitewater. Stevie Walker-Webb directed, with choreography by Tiffany Rea-Fisher. That production received strong reviews and became the principal structural foundation for the Broadway version.

A 2025 workshop combined performers from several stages of development. Pfeiffer returned as Mary, LaFontaine continued as Martha, Luke James played Elijah, Jeannette Bayardelle played Tallulah and Will Swenson played Jesse. Jennie Harney-Fleming and Aurelia Williams appeared as Flo and Sissy. Workshop participation does not guarantee Broadway casting, and the official Broadway production has not yet announced Jesse, Flo, Sissy or the full ensemble.

Why the Broadway Casting Matters

The four announced performers suggest that the producers are treating the score as a major vocal event. Pfeiffer and LaFontaine have extensive musical-theatre experience, while Ledisi and James bring recording careers shaped by gospel, soul and rhythm and blues. That combination matches Baum's score, which uses contemporary Black musical forms inside an 1893 Western setting.

The more interesting challenge is dramatic balance. Mary has the plot's appetite for danger. Martha carries its anxiety about concealment. Tallulah supplies the economic cause and family memory. Elijah exposes the social cost of Martha's disguise. Each role can dominate a scene through vocal power, so Walker-Webb will need to preserve the differences among them. Four large voices will not solve a scene unless each character is pursuing a different objective.

The current casting also reflects the musical's long development. Pfeiffer connects Broadway to the 2020 premiere, LaFontaine connects it to the 2024 Paper Mill production, and James connects it to the 2025 workshop. Ledisi enters during the final commercial phase and may reshape Tallulah around a new vocal identity. That mixture of continuity and replacement is typical of a musical that has been revised for more than a decade.

Cast status: Solea Pfeiffer, Liisi LaFontaine, Ledisi and Luke James are the four publicly confirmed Broadway performers as of July 9, 2026. The complete ensemble and several supporting roles have not yet been announced. Performances begin October 15, 2026, at the James Earl Jones Theatre.