Preview: Hallmark Mahogany’s Spring Breakthrough 

Hallmark and its Mahogany brand of movies heats things up this weekend with Keesha Sharp and Demetrius Grosse in Spring Breakthrough. The “spring break” part of the title involves a trip down south where it’s sunny, hot and things are ripe for romance. 

The “breakthrough” part of the equation is going to be a little harder to achieve for each of the characters mixing it up in this rom com. They’ll each face huge life-changing surprises, which means expect a little bit of turbulence, angst and family drama to threaten their good time in the sun. 

Synopsis: A single mother, surprised by her daughter’s recent engagement, travels to the Gulf Shores where she finds love unexpectedly.

CAST/CHARACTERS

KEESHA SHARP

Keesha Sharp plays Monica, the aforementioned single mother who finds out her about-to-graduate-from-college daughter has gotten engaged out of the blue. Plus, her mindset isn’t in the best place as she travels from the Windy City to the Gulf Coast where a meeting of the parents is happening. 

It’s during this epic rendezvous Monica meets a man, she makes a mess of her relationship with her daughter, but she manages to look fierce while trying to learn the basics of golf. Monica’s path to happiness includes first having to deal with her issues with love, marriage, divorce and making peace with her past and present in order to have an amazing future.

Sharp’s small screen credits include: Girlfriends, Are We There Yet, Lethal Weapon, The Good Fight and she’s currently starring in the third season of Starz’s Power spinoff, Power Book II: Ghost. And has just signed on to star alongside Taye Diggs in the BET+ movie “Love & Murder: Atlanta Playboy.” She recently donned a director’s hat to helm an episode of Peacock’s Bel-Air.

When TV Goodness talked to actress Diandra Lyle, who guest-starred as Erika in Sharp’s season two episode of Bel-Air, she had this to say about the actor/director: “Keesha was the director on [my] very first episode and she was just like love and sunshine. And she is amazing. And she’s gorgeous and she’s so talented. And she’s just so nice. When I spoke to her I said, ‘Hey, I actually shadowed a director this last season on my show [Disney’s Secrets of Sulphur Springs]. She goes, ‘let’s keep in touch. If you need anything, want to talk about directing, let me know.’ She was generous and I felt really encouraged on set and received lots of great feedback and really good notes and direction. And so that was wonderful.”

DEMETRIUS GROSSE

Demetrius Grosse plays Clark, who turns out to be the godfather of the college student that’s engaged to Monica’s daughter Vivian. He’s more carefree than Monica with his time, his life and his golf game. And for good reason. While the two make an instant connection, the path to love for Monica and Clark isn’t smooth. 

Grosse has some powerhouse TV credits to his name. His recurring appearances on AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead will include being a part of the eighth and final season of the zombie drama which begins mid-May. Other shows he’s appeared on include HBO’s Westworld and Lovecraft Country, ABC’s The Rookie, FX’s Justified and Cinemax’s Banshee. According to TVLine, he’s joining the MCU where he’ll play Eric Williams/Grim Reaper in the Disney+ series Wonder Man.

RHYON NICOLE BROWN and AKONO DIXON

Rhyon Nicole Brown and Akono Dixon play the movie’s young couple in love, Vivian and Shawn. They’ve made the big decision to get married. Now they face the consequences of said decision. Vivian’s mom is convinced they’re too young to get married. But that’s not the only obstacle they face. Will they be adult enough to work through their problems as well as their insecurities in order to reach their happily ever after?

Brown’s been booked and busy collecting quality TV credits the last few years, namely Fox’s Empire and Our Kind of People. She played Lizzie Sutton on the late great ABC Family drama, Lincoln Heights for 43 episodes. She’s also appeared in Judging Amy, The Bernie Mac Show and has a couple of holiday flicks on her resume: 2022’s Rolling into Christmas and 2021’s A Christmas Stray. 

Meanwhile, Dixon’s best known for playing Andre on the CW’s All-American. He’s also popped up in HBO’s Euphoria and the Netflix movie Dolemite is My Name, which stars Eddie Murphy.  

FUN FACTS

• Spring Breakthrough was actually filmed on the Gulf Coast at the Grand Hotel Resort and Spa

• Mykelti Williamson directed Spring Breakthrough. Mykelti’s small screen acting credits include Boomtown, 24, Justified, Underground, Chicago PD and Law & Order: Organized Crime. He was also in the Hallmark Mahogany movie The Holiday Stocking. And, of course, he’s Bubba in the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump. He’s also directed episodes of Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias, Chicago Med, FBI and Chicago PD.

• If you’re wondering, the song at the end of the movie is “It’s You” (Max featuring keshi). Here’s the music video: 

Spring Breakthrough premieres on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and streaming on Peacock Sunday night at 7pm ET and PT /6pm CT. We’ll update when we have info on the Canadian airing. Here are a couple of sneak peeks:

Spring Breakthrough Photos courtesy Dan Anderson/Hallmark Media and Patrick Randak/Hallmark Media. Videos courtesy Hallmark Media