‘LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT’ (2026 FILM) REVIEW FROM NEW YORK · Sep 30th

By Bob Shuman

Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night has been filmed, to acclaim, multiple times, including Sidney Lumet’s 1962 production, which  garnered Katharine Hepburn an Oscar nomination—and, at its culmination, left the cast immobile, like mice caught in glue.  In 1973, Laurence Olivier’s version, won an Emmy for the actor’s portrayal of the father, James Tyrone, which was based on the 1971 National Theatre production.  O’Neill had already won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, but he never intended his original “play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood,” to be published, until twenty-five years after his death (he died in 1953).  Never to be performed, he did make arrangements for the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm to stage it, even so.  His widow, Carlotta, overriding alarum, approved the first staging of Long Day’s Journey into Night to take place in Sweden, in 1956. 

 
Jonathan Kent’s new film is drawn from his 2016 Broadway revival, for which Jessica Lange won a Tony Award.  The work, in a streamlined adaptation by Pulitzer-winning David Lindsay-Abaire, is shaped by and focused on Lange’s Mary Tyrone, a convent girl who becomes addicted to morphine, after the delivery of her last child.  Some would disagree, though, that she is the leading character in the script, if the drama is examined in a more Aristotelian way (Aristotle, of course, did not write plays). The main role in O’Neill’s masterpiece probably belongs to the youngest son, Edmund (Colin Morgan), traveling to the doctor to confirm a diagnosis of TB.

 
The playwright might have felt he had earned his own way of seeing drama, as an unruly experimentalist, like James Joyce, who wrote too long, as well (O’Neill said he actually did cut his texts, however);  Kent nods to this untameable, Irish instinct, when showing the help in the Tyrone kitchen (including the cook, Bridget, who is not seen in the play (Lesa Thurman). Did not Treplev, in Chekhov’s The Seagull (the Russian writer influenced O’Neill), call for New Forms?: “and if we can’t have them, then we’d better have nothing at all.” The great interpreter of O’Neill, Brian Dennehy, once explained, in a 2003 Theater Talk interview, as well, that the playwright felt the length, and repetition, of his work was needed–he wanted to “wear the audience down” in order to “saturate them with his ideas.”

 

The run-time for the new movie is 109 minutes (1 hour and 49 minutes). The show time for the Kent-Lange stage production was approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes (225 minutes).  All other film records are longer than two hours and 30 minutes: The Hepburn film lasts 2 hours and 50 minutes; the Olivier version is 2 hours and 40 minutes. Jack Lemmon’s 1987 showing, directed by Jonathan Miller, runs 2 hours and 50 minutes. Ingmar Bergman’s 1988 stage version lasted approximately three hours, but was cut down from its original four-and-one-half hour stage length. The Dennehy production, also starring Vanessa Redgrave: 4.5 hours.

 

The current adaptation, given its relatively brief running time, with what could be considered at least 50 missing minutes, might be comparable to the brittle and delicate 35-year-old wedding bouquet, unpacked in the film, a keepsake, but not the wedding gown (I recall Bibi Andersson dropped hers and left it, forgotten, in Ingmar Bergman’s production).

 

Number of real American dead:  from between 19 and 22, with over 820 wounded.  Record Fuel Costs* (Drudge Report).  Kitchen table up 1.2% (May-June). Mortgage rates rise. In the entertainment industry, healthcare benefits are being lost for unionized performers, who do not earn the $28,933 earning requirement to retain SAG-AFTRA health insurance plans.

 

Trends in Arts and technology are allowing films to be executed differently today, more efficiently than in, let’s say, Lumet’s Hollywood of 1962–even in 2007, before his death, improved methods ran Bergman out of the business.

 

O’Neill had become passé, in the East Village (1980s), after a 1972-1973 surge, with Colleen Dewhurst in A Moon for the Misbegotten.  Other playwrights arrived, a new generation stormed the gates:  Sam Shepard, Wendy Wasserstein, August Wilson, Christopher Durang, to name only four.  When I mentioned O’Neill, one day in a class, I was greeted with silence.  Irish-Americans might still feel that their own experiences were so uncannily his, or his were theirs, but in an ever-changing New York City, who, except us, could find episodes from 1912 relevant?  Were they real or imagined, anyway, heard or literal, no matter how accurate: or were they all from a book?:  The priests and nuns, churches and convent girls, bad doctors and orphans, bogs, and whiskey, pianos and famine, lack of responsibility, stubbornness and outside work, the seashore, God, circumvented fathers, Holy Mary, and “leopards whose spots don’t change.”

 

Kent and Lindsay-Abaire do seem to be mistaking O’Neill for Tennessee Williams, a late convert to Catholicism, born an Episcopalian, at the beginning of their Long Day’s Journey into Night, as if they’re starting to mount The Glass Menagerie (Tom and Edmund both go to sea). The team is forfeiting an amazing stream of naturalism, as if we’re listening from the next room, caught so well by David Wellington in his 1996 Canadian production, starring William Hutt and Martha Henry (run-time: 2 hrs. and 53 minutes).

 

In the early ‘90s, my new roommate, decades my senior, a proper, divorced stockbroker, who wore navy pin-striped suits and Brooks Brothers shirts—and had gone through a nasty, protracted divorce from “the dragon lady,” suddenly mentioned Eugene O’Neill. He thought one of the most memorable parts, from Long Day’s Journey into Night, was the light bulb scene.  “Did you ever see it?”

 

The aforementioned sequence is handled swiftly, in the new film, in the dark, but both Ralph Richardson (in the Lumet version) and Olivier, actually unscrewed them, facing the burning, tactile electric heat, one by one.

 

My new roommate, I would find out, read biographies of Eugene O’Neill.  It  was an interest. He became an expert on the writer, as he saw his children less and less.  What a strange coincidence–I was still dressing in all black (he suggested I change that to blue). Was our common literary interest based on identifying with creatures from the gloam?  Or was emotional truth prevailing, penetrating–like drama was supposed to behave?  The ridiculed, misunderstood James Tyrone (Ed Harris), O’Neill’s paterfamilias, may be critical to an understanding of the reality of the playscape, speaking to most people’s needs and lives, now. Our breaking shopping bags and mice in the dormant heater, during the summer humidity and coming nor’easter.

James is the character who knows, most intimately, the panic of financial insecurity, having been deserted by his father as a child and, by default, working to support his mother and four siblings for 50 cents a week.  As breadwinner, he then took on the economic complexity of his own tormented life and family.  In the play, the “Old Man” can afford his properties, for he became a successful thespian. His investments, however, are considered ill-advised by his wife and sons. He does pay for a cook, maid, and chauffeur/garbageman, even so (how many could do that now?). For those who have been poor, the internal panic may never end—and regarding Tyrone, in particular, Social Security, no matter how long it will last into our future, would never lessen his anxiety:  it wasn’t even implemented until 1940.

 

I’ve never completely understood why Mary is left alone, during the afternoon of the day when Edmund and Jamie (Ben Foster) go to the doctor.  They will hear Edmund’s diagnosis then (James, in the meantime, is looking after his business interests and has an appointment at the club, to follow-up at the doctor’s office, later).  They’ve worried about Mary’s return from the hospital; she’s been “home” for two months, and, the previous night, she entered her old room where she habitually takes morphine. She’s emotionally fraught about the triggering news that her son may be terminally ill.  

 

Why would they leave her—or why wouldn’t more precautions have been set in place? The family throws their hands up so easily; I don’t know whether it’s a plot hole or disturbing inner truth.  Cathleen (Ericka Roe), the maid, is clueless—and useless. But wouldn’t one of the other domestic workers have filled her in?  

 

I suppose the larger  issue with the new Long Day’s Journey into Night is that it does not “fail better,” to quote Beckett.  All the monumental productions, with famous actresses, shocking revelations, artistic imaginations and visions, and the new Aristotelian reflection does not inform our lives more meaningfully than what has gone before.  An anomaly, it is.  The line readings are done well, but this may be thought of, perhaps, as a tribute–not a primal haunting or rite.  The pages of dialogue  have been strategically edited to size.  The cinematography (Mark Wolf) and lighting can be shimmering, the colors muted, but the way of life portrayed seems too dependent on current stereotypes and sensibilities–not the graver, more hardscrabble existence suggested by the accusations, confrontations, and self-destruction of the play, or even from faces in sepia-toned portraits, from the setting’s time.  So much entertainment industry know-how, with the stuff of lived life, and everyday carry, largely beautified, sentimentalized, or missing (such a drop zone of detritus was actually highlighted in the Jessica Lange’ movie Country, 1984).  O’Neill himself, the philosophically anarchistic, radical playwright, would have rebuffed this prestige-film operation–but, like the first Swedish production of Long Day’s Journey into Night, cooler heads prevail. 

 

Long Day’s Journey into Night is unknowable, unfathomable, an Everest, worth reading long biographies about, in which it is analyzed and contextualized–while putting away money for next month’s alimony.  Multiple exposures are warranted, at different venues in various productions; hours and hours of them.  Fortunately, that will never change.

 

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Mary’s shattering last monologue is, perhaps, what people remember most vividly, when they conjure recollections of the play’s emotional excavations, or the dark admittance of sibling betrayal between the brothers.  The story goes that after the first night of the American production, on February 7, 1956, the audience wouldn’t leave.  They came up to the stage and stood there transfixed, wanting to be near it still;  they had been so moved.

 

Mary, you may know, beat her morphine addiction after her husband’s death. Never conclusively diagnosed, Eugene (Edmund), was unable to write for the last ten years of his life, due to a progressive neurological disorder, marked by severe tremoring of the hands.  Jamie, taking care of his mother, until her death at age 64, in L.A., rode with her body back to the East Coast, by train, boozing it up with whores.

 

(c) by Bob Shuman. All rights reserved.

CREDITS

IN MEMORY OF
Bill Kenwright

CAST
(In order of appearance)
Mary Tyrone JESSICA LANGE
James Tyrone ED HARRIS
Jamie Tyrone BEN FOSTER
Edmund Tyrone COLIN MORGAN
Cathleen ERICKA ROE
Bridget LESA THURMAN
Captain Turner BRENT HEARNE
Smythe DEREK CARROLL

Stunt Coordinator DONAL O’FARRELL
Stunt Double WILL WILLOUGHBY

Financial Consultant LUKE RANDOLPH

Associate Producer EMILY LOWE

First Assistant Director DOMINIC CHANNING WILLIAMS

Production Manager BERNIE MCGRATH

Production Sound Mixer ROB FLANAGAN

Supervising Art Director MARK LOWRY

Additional Photography MIKE ELEY BSC

Script Supervisor SUSANNA LENTON

Dialect Coach ERIK SINGER

Sound Supervisor DANNY SHEEHAN

Re-recording Mixer PAUL COTTERELL

Post Production Supervisor MEG CLARK

First Assistant Editor RUTH ANTOINE

Casting Director (Ireland) MAUREEN HUGHES

A Camera Operator MARK WOLF BSC
A Camera First Assistants JOHN MCCARTHY  OLIVER DRISCOLL

 

OPENING 9/25/26, L.A.: ‘LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT’ STARRING JESSICA LANGE & ED HARRIS, BASED ON THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PLAY BY EUGENE O’NEILL · Sep 24th

(via Betsy Rudnick Fernand.)

Long Day’s Journey Into Night

Starring two-time Academy Award®-winner Jessica Lange reprising her 2016 Tony-Award® winning Broadway role for the big screen of the famed Pulitzer Prize winning play by Eugene O’Neill, Academy Award®-nominee Ed Harris, Ben Foster and Colin Morgan

The film is the directorial debut of celebrated British theater and opera director, Jonathan Kent, who has stepped behind the camera for the first time to direct his much-anticipated screen adaptation of O’Neill’s play. Jessica Lange brilliantly plays the emotionally troubled, and addiction-plagued matriarch Mary Tyrone. Ed Harris co-stars as her husband James, self-made man, renowned actor, and failed property magnate. The Tyrone family is completed by Ben Foster as the charming, but wayward and hard-drinking elder son, Jamie, with Colin Morgan as the poetic, bleakly optimistic and consumptive younger son, Edmund – a portrait of O’Neill himself. 

LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT SYNOPSIS:

Set on one single day in August 1912 at the family’s Connecticut seaside home, the story follows the Tyrone family as it faces the looming dual specters of Edmund’s potentially fatal consumption diagnosis alongside his mother Mary’s increasingly fragile and anxious state of mind. The family knows that the situation threatens to return her to the severe morphine addiction that was only recently overcome. 

Opening in Los Angeles September 25, 2026, Additional Markets To Be Announced Shortly

ANOTHER TASTE OF HONEY: SHELAGH DELANEY’S LONG-LOST PLAY ABOUT A TEENAGE TRUANT IS A LITTLE GEM · Sep 23rd

(Michael Billington’s article appeared in the Guardian, 9/23/26. A remarkable gift for dialogue … Shelagh Delaney pictured in 1960. Photograph: Tom Stuttard/the Guardian.)

‘The playwright’s daughter found Catch Me Who Can after her mother’s death. Now it has become a compelling audio drama with Toby Jones and Rita Tushingham

Was Shelagh Delaney a one-hit wonder? Absolutely not. Aside from A Taste of Honey which, in the words of Dominic Dromgoole, “has a rock-solid heart and the gleam of the natural”, she wrote the screenplays for the films Charlie Bubbles and Dance With a Stranger, TV series including The House That Jack Built and several radio plays. But now a 30-minute piece, Catch Me Who Can, has come to light, been released as an audio drama and turns out to be a little gem.

Its origins are fascinating. It deals with a teenage truant and was discovered by Delaney’s daughter, Charlotte, after her mother’s death in 2011. But why did it lay hidden for so long? According to Charlotte, who has adapted it for audio: “It imagines my last few hours on the lam having run away from home and school when I was 14 in 1978. I was gone for three days and two nights. I’d suggest it’s a racing certainty that the reason nothing has ever been heard of it is that it’s about me and my mum had rules about that kind of thing.”

The bulk of the play consists of a testy confrontation between the runaway Hattie (Ivy Sheehan) and her maths teacher (Toby Jones) who tries to persuade her to return home. Although the teacher is only out jogging in a park because he is on strike, he stands for a world of order, discipline and control; Hattie, on the other hand, embodies the need for freedom, anarchy and self-expression. But Delaney imbues the situation with its own ironies. The teacher argues for the sanctity of family life but is himself a conspicuous loner; Hattie’s urge for self-discovery conceals a total disregard for other people including her anxious parents.

Rita Tushingham, far left, with Robert Stephens, Murray Melvin and Dora Bryan in the 1961 film version of A Taste of Honey. Photograph: Ronald Grant

Several things make the play worth listening to. One is the ease and naturalness of the dialogue. Hattie, not unlike the teenage Jo in A Taste of Honey, asks endless questions. At one point she taxes the teacher as to whether he ever did anything to find out what it was like just for the sake of it since “you once told us curiosity was divine”. Delaney also introduces an itinerant bag lady – played by none other than Rita Tushingham who was Jo in Tony Richardson’s film of A Taste of Honey – who says of a relative: “They took him into hospital and took his leg off – just like President Tito.”

(Read more) 

HOW EMERGING DIRECTOR ENZO SZARÁN (22) SHAPES A NEW VOICE FOR PARAGUAYAN THEATRE · Sep 21st

(From the Asuncion Times, 9/20/26.)

At 22, Paraguayan actor, writer and emerging director Enzo Szarán is developing his own theatrical language. His work explores tragedy, German philosophy and human passions. On 23 September, 2026, Szarán presents Sobre una cama de rosas (On a bed of roses) at the Teatro Municipal Ignacio A. Pane. A production that merges theatre, music, dance and visual arts.

Finding his artistic voice

Growing up surrounded by artists gives Szarán an early connection with the creative world. However, his artistic direction becomes clearer during his teenage years. At 15, a scholarship allows him to study theatre with master Agustín Aletto.

“When I travelled to Buenos Aires for a scholarship, I studied with the master Agustín Aletto. That changed my life,” Szarán tells The Asunción Times. “It changed the way I saw things and especially art.”

Until then, his interests centre on comics and comedy. However, discovering tragedy through Romeo and Juliet changes his artistic perspective. “I used to do a lot of comic books, a lot of comedy. Then I saw Romeo and Juliet and the movies. I understood that tragedy was what I liked.”

Since then, tragedy remains central to his creative identity. “Everything I write is tragic, dramatic or melodramatic,” he explains. Alongside tragedy, German philosophy and theatre shape his artistic approach. In particular, Bertolt Brecht and Friedrich Nietzsche influence how he understands theatre.

Enzo Szarán’s writing through music

For Szarán, the creative process begins with classical music. Before writing, he listens repeatedly until an emotional connection develops. “First I listen to classical music for a long time. When the music connects with the words I want to say, I start writing.”

From there, his process becomes detailed and methodical. He writes, listens and analyses each section before continuing. Consequently, music becomes more than background inspiration. Instead, it helps him find the emotions and words behind each scene.

Above all, Szarán wants audiences to think about what they see. His theatre therefore seeks reflection alongside emotion. “What I look for is that people think and reflect, especially about the themes in the work. That is why I use Brecht’s language in my works. I would like people to think more and reflect more on the themes present in society.”

Bringing Sobre una cama de rosas to the stage

These ideas now come together in Sobre una cama de rosas, his newest production. The story grows from his experiences as a writer and actor. Meanwhile, the play introduces a fictional religion inspired by the New Testament.

“I always wanted to create a religious work, but not a real religious work. I wanted a fictitious religion.”

From that idea, Enzo Szarán builds a larger fictional universe. The production also becomes an opportunity for young performers entering the arts. “This new work was created to encourage young people, especially those starting in this art.”

For Szarán, however, the project involves more than creating opportunities. Building a strong relationship between performers also remains essential. “Theatre is pure connection. You build a bond within the cast and create an art that requires a lot of thought.”

As a result, collaboration becomes part of the production’s creative process. The cast works together to communicate the ideas behind the story.

A different theatrical experience

On 23 September, Sobre una cama de rosas premieres at the Teatro Municipal Ignacio A. Pane. The performance begins at 20:00 and lasts approximately one hour. For audiences, Szarán promises an experience that moves beyond conventional theatre. The production mixes theatre, music, dance and visual arts through the concept of “total theatre”.

(Read more)

A SPECTACLE OF PUPPETRY: BUFFALO PARADE THROUGH NEW YORK CITY · Sep 20th

(from CBS Sunday Morning; Photo: Hyperallergic.)

This past week, a herd of 40 buffalo roamed the concrete canyons of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn – life-size puppets that are part of a public arts project by St. Ann’s Warehouse, a Brooklyn theater. Correspondent Anthony Mason reports. “CBS News Sunday Morning” features stories on the arts, music, nature, entertainment, sports, history, science and Americana, and highlights unique human accomplishments and achievements. Check local listings for “CBS News Sunday Morning” broadcast times.

‘WE DEMAND THE TRUTH’: OLGA TOKARCZUK AND JM COETZEE LEAD CALLS FOR PROOF OF LIFE OF DISAPPEARED ERITREAN WRITERS · Sep 18th

(Ella Creamer’s article appeared in the Guardian 9/18/26; From top to bottom, left to right: Temesgen Ghebreyesus, Dawit Isaak, Dawit Habtemichael, Seyoum Tsehaye, Fessehaye ‘Joshua’ Yohannes, Medhanie Haile, Amanuel Asrat, Said Abdelkadir, Sahle ‘Wedi-Itay’ Tsegazeab, Idris Said ‘Aba Arre’, Yousif Mohammed Ali, Matheos Habteab. Photograph: PEN International.)

More than 180 writers sign letter renewing calls for information on 12 authors detained incommunicado since 2001 crackdown on free speech by Isaias Afwerki

More than 180 writers have signed a letter to Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki calling for proof of life for 12 writers arrested in 2001.

Nobel laureates Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee join prominent writers including Colm Tóibín, Elif Shafak, Isabel Allende, Ben Okri, Yann Martel, Kamila Shamsie and Tsitsi Dangarembga in signing the letter organised by PEN International and dated 18 September, marking 25 years since a government crackdown on the independent press. “Within days, Eritrea’s free press and the nation’s independent voices were systematically crushed,” opens the letter.

It lists 12 writers who have been held incommunicado since 2001, including the poet Amanuel Asrat and playwright and journalist Dawit Isaak.

“The families of these writers, the Eritrean people and the global literary community have been met with a painful and unlawful silence,” continues the statement. “To withhold all information regarding their health, location, and survival is a violation of international law and an act of cruelty.”

Along with Asrat and Isaak, the other writers named in the letter are Dawit Habtemichael, Fessehaye “Joshua” Yohannes, Mattewos Habteab, Medhanie Haile, Sahle “Wedi-ltay” Tsegazeab, Said Abdelkadir, Said Idris “Abu Are”, Seyoum Tsehaye, Temesgen Ghebreyesus and Yousif Mohammed Ali. Six of the writers were profiled in the Guardian in 2015.

The letter, signed by 188 writers in total, calls for “immediate, verified proof of life for all arbitrarily detained Eritrean writers and critics”.

Other signatories include Andrei Kurkov, Anthony Doerr, Chloe Aridjis, Lauren Groff, Lemn Sissay, Maaza Mengiste, Madeleine Thien, Margaret Busby, Max Porter, Philippe Sands, Preti Taneja, Tice Cin and Viv Groskop.

“Mr President, Eritrea’s future must be built with its brightest minds, not based on their suppression,” the letter adds. “No writer or journalist should be disappeared for peacefully expressing their views.”

(Read more)

THE TANK PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERE OF LAURA ZLATOS’ ‘SHOW TRIAL’, 10/15-11/8 · Sep 17th

(via Emily Owens; Photo of Laura Zlatos.)
Written by Laura Zlatos
Directed by Tom Costello
Opening Saturday, October 17
October 15-November 8
 
The Tank (Artistic Director’s Meghan Finn and Johnny G. Lloyd) with support from Mateo King West will present the World Premiere of Show Trial, written by Laura Zlatos (Happily After Ever at 59E59), and directed by Tom Costello (And Then the Rodeo Burned Down at Ars Nova) at The Tank (312 W 36th St., New York, NY 10018), October 15-November 8.
One woman stands alone against an oppressive regime. Show Trial turns state propaganda into farce—with choreographed confessions, scripted testimony, and a healthy disregard for reality. Drawn from the real transcripts of the 1950 trial of Milada Horáková, the Czechoslovak dissident accused of treason by a regime that had already written the verdict, it’s a political satire about the choices we make when history belongs to the victors.
Show Trial was written using audio recordings of the 1950 trial, originally made by the Communist Party for propaganda purposes. However, much of the recordings were deemed unusable and were never broadcast in their entirety because lead defendant Milada Horáková repeatedly deviated from the script that was prepared for her. The recordings were subsequently suppressed and forgotten until 2005, when journalist Marek Janač discovered three reels in an unmarked box at the National Archives in Prague. For Show Trial, these recordings were transcribed and translated from Czech to English for the first time. Portions of the transcripts appear in the play verbatim, while others are satirized or omitted. The play also incorporates original sequences that embrace the absurdity of the proceedings, interwoven with surreal and imagined glimpses into Milada Horáková’s life leading up to her arrest. 
Show Trial was developed with Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company in 2022 and at Divadlo Bez zábradlí, in collaboration with Prague Shakespeare Company, in Prague in 2023. It was also a 2024 Finalist for the Jane Chambers Award.
Performances will take place on:
Thursday, October 15 at 7pm (Press Preview)
Friday, October 16 at 7pm (Press Preview) 
Saturday, October 17 at 7pm (Opening Night) 
Monday, October 19 at 7pm
Thursday, October 22 at 7pm
Friday, October 23 at 7pm
Saturday, October 24 at 7pm
Monday, October 26 at 7pm
Thursday, October 29 at 7pm
Friday, October 30 at 7pm
Sunday, November 1 at 3pm
Monday, November 2 at 7pm
Thursday, November 5 at 7pm
Friday, November 6 at 7pm
Saturday, November 7 at 7pm
Sunday, November 8 at 3pm
Tickets are available for advance purchase at https://thetanknyc.org/calendar-1/showtrial. The show will run approximately 100 minutes, with no intermission.
 
Laura Zlatos (Playwright) is a Slovak-American playwright and librettist. Her plays include Show Trial (Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival; Jane Chambers Prize finalist), The Blue Whale (Shawnee Playhouse; NEPTA Award for Best Writing; BroadwayWorld Philadelphia Award for Best New Play; S.O.P.S. Dramatic Play Winner; Todd McNerney Playwriting Award; Marsha A. Croyle Award), Lavinia (Women are Funny Prize), and Happily After Ever (59E59 Theaters; Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Bloomington Playwrights Project; Woodward/Newman Drama Award, The Advocate’s Top 10 NY Theater of 2016, Honorable Mention). Happily After Ever will be published by CMU Press in Fall 2027. Her musicals include The Blood Countess and A Problem with the Pattersons (CITSTS Emerging Writers Residency finalist; O’Neill Music Theatre Conference semifinalist), both written with lyricist-composer Andre Catrini. Her musical Reincarnation Blues was workshopped at The Other Palace in London and developed through the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals and the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. Laura was a Playwriting Fellow with Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company and a Resident Playwright with the Exquisite Corpse Company. Her work has also been developed at the Orchard Project, and she was a finalist for the Princess Grace Award. MFA: Playwriting, Columbia University; MA: Performance Studies, NYU. www.laurazlatos.com @LauraZlatos
Tom Costello (Director) is a director and producer originally from Ithaca, NY. He has most recently worked with writers/performers Xhloe & Natasha as co-director since 2024, including on their run of And Then The Rodeo Burned Down at Ars Nova, the Drama Desk-Award winning runs of What If They Ate The Baby? and A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First at SoHo Playhouse, and their Fall 2026 run of Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It at SoHo Playhouse, Edinburgh Fringe and Soho Theatre in London. He was the Associate Director for the 2022 Revival of American Buffalo and has also worked as Associate and Assistant Director for numerous Off-Broadway productions. He was a Resident Director/Associate Artist at The Flea, where he directed the NYT Critic’s Pick Smoke by Kim Davies. Select credits include Sarina Freda’s no no no please no god no, nevermind i’m fine (HERE, Edinburgh Fringe, The Elysian) which he co-wrote and directed, The Witchelor by John Early & Nicole Spiezio which he co-directed with Early, Kirdle and Miffins with music, book and lyrics by Rona Siddiqui at Keen Teens. He is a Drama League Directing Fellow, Ensemble Member at EST, Former Associate Artistic Director at Pipeline Theatre Company and Former Artistic Director for Atlantic Acting School where he currently serves as a faculty member. He is also Co-Founder and Executive Producer of The Debt Gala, an accessible fashion fundraiser held the night before the Met Gala supporting medical debt-related non-profits.
Founded in 2003, The Tank is an Obie Award-winning, multi-disciplinary non-profit arts presenter and producer, which provides a home to emerging artists working across all disciplines, including theater, comedy, dance, film, music, puppetry, and storytelling. Led by Artistic Directors Meghan Finn and Johnny G. Lloyd, The Tank champions emerging artists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas and forms of expression. In doing so the company removes the economic barriers from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers and experimenting within their art form. From the company’s home with two theaters on 36th Street, The Tank serves over 2,500 artists every year, presents over 1,000 performances, and welcomes 36,000 audience members annually. The company fully produces a curated season of 8-12 theatrical World or New York premieres each season.
 
Artists who have developed their craft at The Tank include Tony Award-winning director Alex Timbers, Drama Desk Award-winning playwright Amy Herzog, screenwriter Lucy Alibar, comedian/actor X Mayo, online creator Julian Shapiro-Barnum, producer Kyle Jarrow, musician Reggie Watts, comedian/writer Baratunde Thurston, choreographer Tiffany Rea-Fisher, choreographer Kyle Abraham, filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, the rock band We Are Scientists, and tens of thousands of others. The Tank has been honored with an OBIE Award for Institutional Recognition celebrating our Extraordinary Support of Emerging Artists, 6 Drama Desk nominations for our co-produced work, and an official New York City Council proclamation.  Artistic Director, Meghan Finn, was the recipient of a 2024 David Prize for Extraordinary New Yorkers.
The Tank’s production of Holes in the Shape of My Father by Savon Bartley was nominated for a 2026 Drama Desk Award. Recent Tank hit productions include Berlinda! By Daniel Holzman, Kara & Emma & Barbara & Maranda by Ariel Stess (2024 Obie Award), Lobster by Kallan Dana (New York Magazine Critics Pick), Mahinerator by Jerry Lieblich (Highbrow/Brilliant New York Magazine Approval Matrix), New York Times Critics Picks Simon and His Shoes (2022), Taxilandia (2021, 2023 Obie Award), Open by Crystal Skillman (2019), Red Emma & The Mad Monk by Alexis Roblan (2018), and The Offending Gesture by Mac Wellman (2016); as well as Drama Desk Award-nominated productions The Hunger Artist (2018), Ada/Ava (2016) and youarenowhere (2016).

KENNEDY CENTER WILL CLOSE FOR RENOVATIONS AFTER JUDGE BLOCKS RETURNING TRUMP’S NAME TO BUILDING · Sep 16th

(Steven Sloan’s and Ashraf Khalil’s article appeared on the AP, 9/15/2026; Photo: AP/ Jacquelyn Martin.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump’s name to the building.

In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the approval of Congress.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.

The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he’d given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.

The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialize the president at the Kennedy Center. At one point, Beatty referred to Trump as someone who caused “extreme harm,” according to a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Trump said Beatty was “incompetent” and “holding up everything.”

 

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“You’re holding up the whole country,” she responded.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, “Trump-deranged Dumocrats like Joyce Beatty oppose anything that celebrates the greatness of our country because they put America Last.”

Kennedy Center fans worry about possible demolition

The developments threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation’s most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for decades to recognize and celebrate the best in American arts and culture.

The venue’s leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building’s main hallway earlier this month intensified the calls for renovations.

“The building is not currently built to last, the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement.

But Trump’s insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point — alienating many of the institution’s longtime supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks.

The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump’s second term bid to dramatically remake the nation’s capital in his gilded tastes. He’s demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He’s also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River.

The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honor.

Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.

(Read more)

***** ‘PRE-EXISTING CONDITION’ REVIEW – LUPITA NYONG’O IS PHENOMENAL IN DOMESTIC ABUSE DRAMA · Sep 15th

(Juan A. Ramirez’s article appeared in the Guardian, 9/14/26; Photo: Lupita Nyong’o in Pre-Existing Condition. Photograph: Jessica Kourkounis.)

Greenwich House Theater, New York
The Oscar-winning actor transfixes in Marin Ireland’s masterfully nuanced play about a woman reeling from a toxic relationship

Paradoxically, the more stars step into the lead role in Pre-Existing Condition, the more the brilliance of Marin Ireland’s domestic abuse play takes center stage. Not that it ever suffered from a lack of acting talent – when it premiered in 2024, at New York’s tiny Connelly Theater Upstairs, it counted Tatiana Maslany, Edie Falco and Deirdre O’Connell among the actors who played its central character in quick succession, for only a few weeks each. And this return engagement, at the larger Greenwich House Theater across town, kicks off with Lupita Nyong’o, before making way for Phillipa Soo, Susannah Flood, Hari Nef, Falco again and Whitney White.

It’s a straightforward conceit, perfectly calibrated for a 75-minute run time. A woman (whom the script refers to as A, currently played by Nyong’o) is dealing with the aftermath of a breakup triggered by her partner hitting her. When we meet her, someone (perhaps a lawyer, or a therapist) is laying out the reality of her situation: even with the deep pockets required to go to court, it’s been seven months since the incident, it happened across state lines and she never called the police. “You have to be ready for a fight,” she tells A. “Which, just from our short time with each other, I can already tell that you’re not.” 

Characters might define who they are midway through a scene. But as played by the rotating trio, and with even well-meaning acquaintances capable of uttering something unwittingly devastating, anyone who walks into A’s life registers as a stranger. Director Maria Dizzia blurs transitions by having characters linger as Isabella Byrd’s lighting shifts, and the next scene begins before we’ve realized the current one has ended. (Cate McCrea’s set and Enver Chakartash’s costumes are aptly nondescript.)

The result is an atmosphere of confusion, matching A’s destabilized self. Ireland’s script places her on a gently upward trajectory, but is clear about the reality that healing is hardly linear. She’s based it on her own experience with domestic violence: her ex, the actor Scott Shepherd, struck Ireland while they were rehearsing a play in London in 2012.

(Read more)

MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB’S NEW PRODUCTION OF CLIFFORD ODETS’ “AWAKE AND SING!” · Sep 14th

(via The Press Room)

TICKETS NOW ON SALE
FOR MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB’S
NEW PRODUCTION OF
CLIFFORD ODETS’
AWAKE AND SING!
DIRECTED BY TYNE RAFAELI

FEATURING
DANNY BURSTEIN, MICAELA DIAMOND,
JESSICA HECHT, WILL PULLEN,
AND JEREMY SHAMOS

PREVIEWS BEGIN DECEMBER 15, 2026
OPENING NIGHT JANUARY 7, 2027
AT THE SAMUEL J. FRIEDMAN THEATRE
 

(New York, NY – September 14, 2026) — Manhattan Theatre Club (Nicki Hunter, Artistic Director and Chris Jennings, Executive Director) announces that tickets are now on sale for the company’s new Broadway production of Clifford Odets’ landmark 1935 American drama, Awake and Sing! Directed by Tyne Rafaeli (Off-Broadway: Data, The Coast Starlight, Epiphany), Awake and Sing! will begin preview performances on Tuesday, December 15, 2026, with opening night on Thursday, January 7, 2027 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). Visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com for more information.

Awake and Sing! is produced in association with Tony and Olivier Award winners Brian and Dayna Lee (Broadway: Giant, Moulin Rouge!, Angels in America), and Tony and Olivier Award winners Nicole and Stephanie Kramer (Broadway: Giant, Sunset Boulevard, Leopoldstadt).

It’s the 1930s, and the Bronx is a furnace. New ideas clash with the old amidst the poverty and shattered promises of the Great Depression. And three generations of the Berger family, trapped inside their cramped tenement, struggle to hold different visions of an American dream. Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, this classic battle between hope and disillusionment returns to Broadway, speaking thrillingly to the present.

The production features Tony Award winner Danny Burstein (Broadway: Moulin Rouge!, Marjorie Prime, Fiddler on the Roof) as Uncle Morty; Tony and Grammy Award nominee Micaela Diamond (Broadway: Parade, The Cher Show; Television: “Grotesquerie”) as Hennie Berger; Tony and Emmy Award nominee Jessica Hecht (Eureka Day; Summer, 1976 at MTC) as Bessie Berger; Will Pullen (Broadway: To Kill a Mockingbird, Sweat; Film: The Unforgivable) as Ralph Berger; and Tony Award nominee Jeremy Shamos (Broadway: Clybourne Park, The Assembled Parties at MTC; TV: “Only Murders in the Building”) as Myron Berger. Additional casting will be announced later.

Awake and Sing! originally premiered on Broadway in 1935, produced by the legendary Group Theatre, and helped establish Clifford Odets as a major voice in American theatre.

MTC’s production features scenic and costume design by three-time Tony Award winner David Zinn, lighting design by three-time Tony Award nominee Isabella Byrd, and original music and sound design by five-time Tony Award nominee Daniel Kluger. The Dialect and Vocal Coach is Kate Wilson. Casting is by Caparelliotis Casting and Kelly Gillespie. The Production Stage Manager is Jennifer Rae Moore.

TICKETING INFORMATION

Single tickets are available at https://www.telecharge.com/Awake-And-Sing-Tickets. Joining MTC’s season of plays is easy! Just call the MTC Clubline at 212-399-3050 or go to www.manhattantheatreclub.com.

MTC’s 2026-27 SEASON
 
An additional production for MTC’s 2026-27 season will be announced soon.
 
Broadway Premiere
School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
By Jocelyn Bioh
Directed by Whitney White
With Lucia Aremu, Denée Benton, Patina Miller, Erin Morton, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, Jordan Rice, Jasmine Amy Rogers, and Heather Alicia Simms
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street
Now in performances
Opening Night September 28, 2026
Produced in association with Chase This Productions and Susan Kelechi Watson
 
Becoming Miss Ghana 1986 would mean fame, fortune, and prosperity. At least, that’s what Paulina—the queen bee of Aburi Girls Boarding School—believes. When the pageant recruiter comes to school, Paulina and her crew pull out all the stops. But to their surprise, a new transfer student from America kicks the competition into a higher, far more personal gear. Arriving on Broadway for the first time nearly a decade after its Off-Broadway premiere, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play reunites the powerhouse team behind Jaja’s African Hair Braiding—Tony Award-nominated playwright Jocelyn Bioh and Tony Award-nominated director Whitney White—for this bright, biting comedy.
 
American Premiere
The Unbelievers
By Nick Payne
Directed by Knud Adams
With Lauren Ambrose, Tom Riley & more to be announced
NY City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street
Performances begin October 13, 2026
Opening Night November 5, 2026
 
Faith means believing in something. Especially when it feels impossible. As the years go by and the mystery of the sudden disappearance of Miriam and David’s teenage son remains unsolved, their blended family must figure out how to go on, relearning how to live through the ups and downs of ordinary days in their altered world. From the Tony and Olivier Award-nominated writer Nick Payne (Constellations, Incognito) and the Tony-nominated director Knud Adams (English, Primary Trust), comes this poignant and disarmingly funny new play about the power of hope.
 
Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing!
Directed by Tyne Rafaeli
With Danny Burstein, Micaela Diamond, Jessica Hecht, Will Pullen, Jeremy Shamos & more to be announced
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street
Performances begin December 15, 2026
Opening Night January 7, 2027
Produced with Brian and Dayna Lee and Nicole Kramer and Stephanie Kramer
 
It’s the 1930s, and the Bronx is a furnace. New ideas clash with the old amidst the poverty and shattered promises of the Great Depression. And three generations of the Berger family, trapped inside their cramped tenement, struggle to hold different visions of an American dream. Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, this classic battle between hope and disillusionment returns to Broadway, speaking thrillingly to the present.
 
World Premiere
Faydra
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Les Waters
With Julianne Moore & more to be announced
New York City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street
Performances begin February 2, 2027
Opening Night February 25, 2o27
 
Aphrodite aims her bow at Faydra and lets an arrow of love fly. Nothing is ever the same. Mostly because the object of Faydra’s sudden, all-devouring lust is her soon-to-be stepson.
 
Academy Award winner Julianne Moore stars in this fearless world premiere that is a modern take on the classic Greek myth. Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl and directed by Tony nominee Les Waters, Faydra explores the impossibility of reconciling logic and longing – especially for a woman unwilling to deny desire.
 
World Premiere
Montauk
By David Hare
Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Starring Laura Linney & more to be announced
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street
Opening Spring 2027
 
Montauk is a visceral portrait of two artists with violently different approaches to art and life. Jared Speight is a stubborn titan of Long Island abstraction when star writer Roxy Margaux first becomes infatuated with his bravado. But over a decade of romantic and career entanglements, their different reasons for making art become painfully clear. Intelligent and intimate, this world premiere asks far-reaching questions about our passions and the sacrifices we make for them.
 
ABOUT MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB

Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is one of America’s preeminent non-profit theatrical institutions and a premier destination in New York City for both the most talented artists and discerning audiences to return to time and again. Artistic Director Nicki Hunter, who assumed the role in December 2025; Executive Director Chris Jennings, who joined the company in 2023; and their dedicated staff are committed to producing bold, entertaining and thought-provoking new plays and musicals at their Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway and two Off-Broadway stages at New York City Center. This new leadership team is building on the artistic legacy created and led by Lynne Meadow since 1972. She and Barry Grove, her partner for 48 years, helmed a company that has been dedicated to new work, new voices and new perspectives, and has produced more than 600 premieres, which include nearly 20% of all the new plays on Broadway since they opened the Friedman in 2003. MTC’s work has gone on to be mounted around the country and the world, making a significant contribution to the theatrical canon. MTC’s productions have garnered 31 Tony Awards; 57 Drama Desk Awards; 49 Obie Awards; seven Pulitzer Prizes for Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living, Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, David Auburn’s Proof, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart; and many other honors. The organization’s robust slate of Artistic Development initiatives features one of the largest commissioning programs in the country, readings, workshops, fellowships, dramaturgical support and other resources for artists. MTC is committed to making its productions broadly accessible, engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds, and strives to help them build deep connections with its work through Beyond the Stage programming and its Learning and Community Engagement program, which serves over 3,000 students of all ages annually throughout the NYC area, nationwide and abroad. For more information, please visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com.

 

BIOGRAPHIES

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