Showstoppers: Jordan E. Cooper

While he was writing his play Ain’t No Mo’, Jordan E. Cooper never imagined it opening on Broadway. “Hell, I thought it was too bold and blunt to be produced anywhere,” he says. “It initially was just an exorcism of my own laughter, pain and confusion.” But after a successful run in 2019 at the Public Theater, Ain’t No Mo’ begins previews this November at the Belasco Theatre with the producing help of  filmmaker Lee Daniels. In the show, Cooper plays Peaches, a pink-haired flight attendant checking in black American citizens on a one-way trip to Africa. It takes him an hour and a half to transform into the character, but, says Cooper, “I’m excited about taking flight with a new audience every night—having church with them, laughing with them, crying with them and shouting together.”