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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

The Mountaintop

Jon Michael Hill and Amanda Warren in The Mountaintop.

June 6 – July 9, 2023
10886 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024, United States

On the night of April 3, 1968, in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech to striking sanitation workers. It was titled “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” The next day he was assassinated. Katori Hall’s play The Mountaintop takes place in the hours directly following the speech, when King returns to his motel room. The story is surreal: King meets a maid named Carmae who later reveals she is an angel sent to usher him into Heaven. Written in 2011, the Olivier Award-winning drama now comes to the Geffen Playhouse. Jon Michael Hill stars as King. —Jensen Davis