'P-Valley': Release date, plot, cast, trailer and all you need to know about Starz's strip club drama
Celebrated playwright Katori Hall has adapted her acclaimed play 'Pu*** Valley' for Starz, and retitled it in a more family-friendly way as 'P-Valley'. The series, debuting in July, will follow the stories of a community of Black Southern strippers, regulars, and staff in a strip club in the Mississippi Delta. Each of the eight episodes will be directed by a woman. According to Hall, the intention was to embrace "a female gaze in a world that has historically been an exploitative, males-only space". The series comes from Chernin Entertainment.
Release date
'P-Valley' will premiere on July 12 at 9 pm ET/PT on Starz.
Plot
Starz's description of the show tells us a little about what to expect. "Down deep in the Mississippi Delta lies an oasis of grit and glitter in a rough patch of human existence where beauty can be hard to find. This southern-fried, hour-long drama tells the kaleidoscopic story of a little-strip-club-that-could and the big characters who come through its doors—the hopeful, the lost, the broken, the ballers, the beautiful, and the damned. Trap music meets film noir in this lyrical and atmospheric series that dares to ask what happens when small-town folk dream beyond the boundaries of the Piggly Wiggly and the pawnshop." The series is centered around "The Pynk club", a strip club joint. Katori Hall's original screenplay, which she adapted for TV, was based on six years of solid research, where she interviewed 40 women and visited clubs across the country.
Cast
Brandee Evans as Mercedes
Brandee Evans plays Mercedes, the Pynk club headline act about to retire. Evans is a professional dancer and choreographer, who has worked with Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, Ledisi, Kelly Rowland, Snoop Dogg, and Katy Perry, while dabbling in acting.
Elarica Johnson is Autumn Night
Elarica Johnson is Autumn Night, Pynk club's new performer. Johnson is a British actress known for 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince', 'A Discovery of Witches', and 'Blade Runner 2049'.
Other cast regulars include Nicco Annan as Uncle Clifford, Shannon Thornton as Keyshawn / Miss Mississippi, J. Alphonse Nicholson as Lil Murda, Skyler Joy as Gidget, Parker Sawyers as Andre Watkins, Harriett D. Foy as Patrice Woodbine, Tyler Lepley as Diamond, and Dan J. Johnson as Corbin Kyle. Actors in recurring roles are Isaiah Washington as Mayor Tydell Ruffin, Loretta Devine as the Granmuva of Uncle Clifford, Thomas Q. Jones as Mane, Josh Ventura as Wayne Kyle, and Morocco Omari as Big L.
Creators
The show was created and self-adapted from her play by Katori Hall. She also serves as showrunner and executive producer with Chernin Entertainment producing the series. Season 1 will have an all-female directing team. Famed Drake music video director Karena Evans has directed the pilot. The other seven episodes have been directed in turn by Kimberly Peirce, Tamra Davis, Barbara Brown, Sydney Freeland, Geeta V. Patel, Millicent Shelton, and Tasha Smith.
Trailer
Mercedes is the star dancer at a small-town strip club in the Mississippi Delta. The club's manager, Uncle Clifford, calls on Mercedes to train newcomer Autumn Night before she retires."Who better to learn from than an O.G. like me?" Mercedes tells Autumn. The trailer also shows brief glimpses of the club's other 'regulars' and the Southern town in which the strip-joint is located.
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