It’s been more than 50 years since the first production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and in that time, Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize–winning play about a Southern family torn apart by lies and mendacity has never been performed on Broadway by an all African-American cast. That changes this month, when Debbie Allen directs James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Terrence Howard, and Anika Noni Rose in the first such production.

Allen explains that aside from some small tweaks to the language — Big Daddy can’t be called a “redneck,” for example — the play remains exactly as Williams wrote it. And despite the playwright’s infamously negative feelings about the film adaptation (which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman), Allen believes this is a production Williams would have liked.

“When you read his memoirs, you learn that he thought nontraditional casting would bring more revelation to the characters,” she says. “He thought nontraditional casting would eliminate some of the clichés and would add more layers to who these characters are.”

This particular production was in development for more than a decade and is approved by Williams’ estate. “It took quite some doing to get the right cast to line up like the planets,” Allen acknowledges. But now that the play is ready for audiences, the director is looking forward to their reactions.

“Tennessee Williams is such an icon, and this will be the first time a lot of people see this play,” she says. “Our audience will be diverse and will be seeing it in a way it’s never been seen before.”

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