As Trump attacks LGBTQ+ communities, Philadelphia readies the stage for the world premiere of James Baldwin’s ‘Giovanni’s Room’

After 18 years, two rejections, and countless hours of rewrites, the first-ever authorized adaptation of James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel Giovanni’s Room is set to premiere. Not in the legendary author’s hometown of New York or chosen home of Paris — but right here in Philadelphia.

Almost seven decades ago, Baldwin’s initial attempt to submit the landmark LGBTQ+ book to his publisher Alfred A. Knopf ended in rejection, too. His editors insisted the work was a failure that would damage his literary reputation. Undeterred, the then 31-year-old author went to Dial Press and released his vivid story of gay love, desire, and despair in 1956, delivering one of the most explosive and revolutionary novels of the 20th century.

There have been many efforts to adapt Baldwin’s works into films and plays since he died in 1987, nearly all of them unsanctioned or unsuccessful in earning official approval from his estate. The 2018 film If Beale Street Could Talk was a rare exception that paved the road for new adaptations in the future.

Giovanni’s Room in particular has been attempted several times. Though it never materialized during his lifetime, Baldwin had worked on a Giovanni’s Room screenplay — even getting interest from actors Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro — that eventually fizzled.

All this history makes Quintessence Theatre’s world premiere production of Giovanni’s Room, in previews now and opening at the Sedgwick Theater on June 7, an international sensation that audiences in Philadelphia get to experience before anyone else.

Actor Benjamin Sprunger was a college student in Ohio during the ’90s when he learned about the novel in an AOL chat room for gay men. Like countless others, he was immediately struck by Baldwin’s cinematic and devastating prose; he wanted to play every role.

More an actor than a playwright, Sprunger had no grand plans of penning an authorized adaptation when he began toying around with a script around 2007 while working in Chicago. His first drafts leaned closer to being a dramatic reading than a full play, with the narration taken almost verbatim from the book. Sprunger then tried contacting Baldwin’s estate.

“I was turned down a couple of times, which is fine, it’s their prerogative,” said Sprunger, who now lives in Atlanta. “They weren’t going to give the rights to this incredible novel to somebody who wasn’t a playwright, who didn’t have any track record of writing plays.”

Through Chicago’s theater scene, Sprunger already knew Paul Oakley Stovall, a playwright and former Hamilton actor whose recent credits include historical plays like Written By Phillis, about pioneering Black poet Phillis Wheatley.

In a drama program in 2017, the two teamed up to workshop Sprunger’s scripts. Stovall was daunted by the responsibility at first, but felt like it was too important to turn away simply because he was afraid.

“My ethos just became, ‘If we’re going to do this, we’re going to get in bed with Baldwin. We’re not going to be precious about it,’” said Stovall, who frequently works in Philadelphia but is based in Chicago. “Let the novel be the novel, and let this play be the play. … We’re not Baldwin. We can’t be him. But what we can do is [combine] our artistic sensibilities, after 20-some years of knowing each other, we can say what we have to say.”

The story follows an American expat, David, living in Paris as his girlfriend Hella travels to Spain to contemplate his marriage proposal. He meets Giovanni, an Italian bartender, at a gay bar and they start a fiery affair mostly within the confines of Giovanni’s tiny apartment. A tragic conclusion looms over the narrative as the first page informs readers that Giovanni is headed to the guillotine for killing his predatory boss.

Stovall worked on transforming Sprunger’s script, which (like the novel) relied heavily on David’s interiority, into a more active drama.

The pair also experimented with moving dialogue to different characters to retain as much of Baldwin’s original text and characters as possible. Stovall restored Joey, David’s first lover, and his Aunt Ellen, while expanding more on the trans character Flaming Princess, whom Baldwin only mentions in passing. (In Quintessence’s production, the role is played by local trans actor Midge Nease.)

Knowing the significance of Giovanni’s Room specifically for the queer community, the cast and creative team have been feeling the immense pressure of the historic world premiere. Stovall, also serving as director, has found comfort in what feels like an alignment of forces — particularly given Philadelphia’s beloved bookstore of the same name.

“Philly is a theater town that doesn’t get the credit for being the theater town that it is … it’s actually the perfect laboratory,” he said. “There’s some magic going on. Jimmy B wants it to be here.”

Quintessence Theatre artistic director Alex Burns had heard about Sprunger and Stovall’s efforts to adapt the novel and periodically checked on its progress as he believed it would be a great fit for his classic theater company. (“It’s our Shakespeare, an American classic,” said Stovall.)

Like the playwrights, Burns also had strong memories of reading the work as a gay high schooler in Mount Airy and finding it to be “some of the most honest and profound writing” on sexual identity with scenes that were “very innately theatrical.”

In early 2024, Burns wrote to Baldwin’s estate and sent a copy of the script.

“We weren’t saying, ‘Hey, just give us these great stories and characters and let us put them on stage.’ We were saying, ‘Let us bring the words of James Baldwin to the stage,’” said Burns. “The script is the language of James Baldwin, the ideas of James Baldwin. That was really the argument that we made to the estate.”

Now under the jurisdiction of Baldwin’s niece, the estate promptly approved, signaling a shift in their approach to future adaptations.

The estate also shared major news: “They had just discovered or believed that they were in possession of Baldwin’s own adaptation of the book into a play,” said Burns. “They were pursuing producing opportunities for that, but because we had been writing and working on it for so long, and they thought it was an exciting approach to the work, they were excited to let us present it in Philadelphia.”

As Sprunger and Stovall prepare for opening night, they have been thinking about the gay men who needed Giovanni’s Room when it was published at the height of the Lavender Scare era of widespread anti-LGBT persecution.

They have heard stories of men who stole the lifesaving novel from libraries and bookstores to avoid being outed. Debuting the play today, as the Trump administration targets and criminalizes LGBTQ+ communities, evokes Baldwin’s own record of resistance and fighting for civil rights.

“It feels rebellious,” said Stovall. “It feels like the timing is just right.”

Quintessence Theatre’s “Giovanni’s Room,” May 28-June 29. 7137 Germantown Ave., Phila., quintessencetheatre.org