2011 - 2013 • 2008 - 2011 • 2005 - 2008 • 2003 - 2005 • 2000 - 2003 •1997 - 2000 •1995 - 1997
Rafta, Rafta...April 16 - June 7, 2008
Extended at the Acorn Theatre through June 28, 2008
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row by Ayub Khan Din
based on the play All In Good Time by Bill Naughton
and directed by Scott Elliott
featuring: Utkarsh Ambudkar, Satya Bhabha, Sarita Choudhury,
Ranjit Chowdhry, Manish Dayal, Sakina Jaffrey, Sean T. Krishnan,
Reshma Shetty, Alok Tewari, Alison Wright
Recent winner of the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, Rafta, Rafta... is a humorous tale of close-knit Indian family life in Britain. After their wedding feast, two nervous newlyweds are ready for some privacy, but the groom's father doesn't want the party to end and his brother won't let them be. Before long, the groom and his new bride begin to realize that having a honeymoon in his parents' house is not the ideal recipe for romance. Rafta, Rafta... is Ayub Khan-Din's comic look at the generational divide on sex and marriage.
“In an era of faster-is-better entertainment, RAFTA, RAFTA.... is notable for its winningly slow hand.
Director Scott Elliott is at his best.” - Ben Brantley,The New York Times
• Lucille Lortel Nomination •
(Outstanding Costume Design - Theresa Squire)
• Drama Desk Award Nomination •
(Outstanding Music in a Play - DJ Rehka)
Two Thousand YearsJanuary 15 - March 8, 2008
Extended at the Acorn Theatre through March 22, 2008
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
by Mike Leigh and directed by Scott Elliott
featuring: Yuval Boim, David Cale, Laura Esterman,
Jordan Gelbar, Merwin Goldsmith, Cindy Katz,
Natasha Lyonee and Richard Masur
Hot off their recent smash hit Abigail's Party, Artistic Director Scott Elliot re-teams with longtime collaborator Mike Leigh on his latest play, which had a sold-out run at London's National Theatre. Leigh's play tells how an assimilated Jewish family's quiet life in suburban London is upset when their son becomes seriously devout.
“IT'LL RESTORE YOUR FAITH IN THEATRE! A WINNER! A funny,
affecting play about faith and family and the nuttiness of each.”
- Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News
Things We WantOctober 22 - December 15, 2007
Extended at the Acorn Theatre through December 22, 2007
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
by Jonathan Marc Sherman and directed by Ethan Hawke
featuring: Paul Dano, Peter Dinklage, Josh Hamilton, Zoe Kazan
Three brothers at loose ends find themselves living together again in their childhood apartment, and wrestle with how to cope with the void left by their parents' deaths. A sweet and sour look at the illusions we have about what can make us happy, and what's actually within our power to change.
“A HIGH-TESTOSTERONE equivalent of CRIMES OF THE HEART...
the HIGHEST COOL QUOTIENT of any show in town!”
- Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Strangers KnockingMay 14, 2007 - June 3, 2007
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
by Robert Tenges and directed by Marie Masters
featuring: Talia Balsam, Mercer Boffey, Julie Halston,
Stella Maeve, Michael Stahl-David, Jonathan Walker
The New Group (naked)
Strangers Knocking takes place on the day of Sophie's first big high school dance, as her budding sexuality throws into relief the strains in the marriage of her frustrated parents, and the rippling effects this has on all their relationships. Tenges captures the subtle tensions of the unspoken in a family.
ExpatsMay 18, 2007 - June 3, 2007
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
by Heather Lynn MacDonald and directed by Ari Edelson
featuring: Reiko Aylesworth, James Badge Dale, Jesse Hooker,
Jay Klaitz, Matthew Rauch, Taylor Wilcox, Natalia Zvereva
The New Group (naked)
Expats, set in Moscow soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, is a compelling look at American twenty-somethings trying to make their mark amidst the sex, death, and corruption of Russia's emerging marketplace. The play follows the intersecting paths of a beer-selling entrepreneur, a young woman volunteer at an abortion clinic, and two cynical young journalists running an English-language tabloid, each of whom dig into the dark underbelly of the capitalist transition.
The AccomplicesMarch 20, 2007 - May 5, 2007
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
By Bernard Weinraub, directed by Ian Morgan
featuring: Catherine Curtin, Jon DeVries, Robert Hogan, Zoe Lister-Jones,
David Margulies, Andrew Polk, Daniel Sauli, Mark Zeisler, Mark Zimmerman
In 1940, Hillel Kook, a.k.a. Peter Bergson, arrives in the US fresh from the underground resistance in Palestine. He seeks aid for the rescue of European Jews from the Nazis. Bergson is shocked to find himself blocked by both the Roosevelt administration and the Jewish establishment. Veteran NY Times reporter Bernard Weinraub writes a blistering account of the fight to save millions, and the conspiracy of silence and inaction that continues to haunt us to this day.
“Provocative, Intelligent, & Compelling.”
-Daily News
• Lucille Lortel Award Nomination •
(Outstanding Featured Actor - David Marguiles)
• 2 Drama Desk Award Nominations •
(Outstanding Play - Bernard Weinraub;
Outstanding Fetured Actor in a Play - Andrew Polk
The FeverJanuary 9, 2007 - March 3, 2007
Extended at the Acorn Theatre thru March 9th, 2007
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
written and performed by Wallace Shawn
directed by Scott Elliott
An anonymous narrator wakes up in a war-torn country with a terrible fever, unable to reconcile the privilege he has enjoyed with his current surroundings. Shawn's brilliant play examines the links between the affluence many Americans take for granted and the horrors of poverty and suffering that haunt the lives of millions.
“FIVE STARS! DON'T MISS IT!”
- Time Out NY
The Prime of Miss Jean BrodieSeptember 20, 2006 - November 11, 2006
Extended at the Acorn Theatre thru December 9th, 2006
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
By Jay Presson Allen, directed by Scott Elliott
featuring: Emily Bicks, Ritchie Coster, Lisa Emery, Betsy Hogg,
Zoe Kazan, Caroline Lagerfelt, Cynthia Nixon, John Pankow,
Caity Quinn, Matthew Rauch, Sarah Steele, Halley Wegryn Gross
In a 1930s conservative Scottish girls' school, the students idolize their scandalously outspoken teacher, Miss Brodie, who preaches the value of art, passion, and daring. But while Brodie's protégées avidly follow her, her political ideals, personal rivalries and frank sensuality are increasingly in danger of destroying her and those around her.
“Cynthia Nixon generates a glowing personal radience that attracts Brodie's students like a beacon of wisdom. Her Miss Jean Brodie remains a delightfully misleading lady.”
-Michael Sommers, The Star-Ledger
Everythings Turning Into BeautifulJuly 17, 2006 - August 26, 2006
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, songs by Jimmie James
directed by Carl Forsman
featuring: Daphne Rubin-Vega and Malik Yoba
Late one Christmas Eve in lonely New York City, a couple of down-on-their-luck songwriting partners, who are hitless, loveless and facing their forties, come together for a night of song-writing and soul-searching.
"Beaucoup charm! The Chemistry between
Daphne and Malik is off the charts."
- Variety
Jayson with a YJune 1 - June 24
Lion Theatre, Theatre Row
by Darci Picoult and directed by Sheryl Kaller
featuring: Kevin Geer, Marin Hinkle, Daniel Oreskes,
Maryann Plunkett, Miles Purinton, Alysia Reiner
The New Group (naked)
Jayson with a Y centers on two sisters in the midst of major changes in their lives, as they are forced to decide who will care for their suddenly orphaned nephew Jayson, who has Asperger's Syndrome. Though Jayson is in desperate need of a stable environment, the women and their reluctant husbands struggle with a new reality that threatens to unravel the promises they made to his mother and each other long ago.
"Beautifully observed, 'Jayson' goes directly for emotional punch."
- The New York Times
A Spalding Gray MatterMay 3, 2006 - May 22, 2006
Extended one week thru May 27, 2006
Clurman Theatre, Theatre Row
written and performed by Michael Brandt, directed by Ian Morgan
The New Group (naked)
A Spalding Gray Matter explores the curious story of Spalding Gray's illness, disappearance and assumed suicide through the eerily parallel events of author Michael Brandt's own experience. Melding the theatrical structure of Gray's monologues with his own sense of the ridiculous, Brandt seeks to understand what happened to Gray as a way to define what happened to himself. The result is a story about the consequences of illness and recovery on the human psyche.
"COMPELLING AND IRASCIBLY HUMOROUS!
BRANDT HAS A SUBTLE POWER THAT MAKES HIS PERSONAL EXAMINATION UNEXPECTEDLY UNIVERSAL."
- Time Out New York's Jessica Branch
The Music Teacher,a Play/Opera
February 22, 2006 - April 9, 2006
The Minetta Lane
words by Wallace Shawn, music by Allen Shawn,
directed by Tom Cairns
featuring: Ross Benoliel, Mark Blum, Elisa Cordova, Jason Forbach, Wayne Hobbs, Lauren Jelencovich, Kristin Knutson, Kellie Overbey, Jeff Picón, Rebecca Robbins, Kathryn Skemp, Bobby Steggert, Kristina Valada-Viars, Sarah Wolfson.
A unique blend of theatre and opera, The Music Teacher is a story of creation and sexual obsession in which a younger teacher and his brilliant female student conceive and perform a new opera. The company includes players from the arenas of theater and opera.
"Prufrockian. Painfully Lovely...Funny and Moving."
Marilyn Stasio, Variety
Abigail's PartyNovember 14, 2005 - January 7, 2006
Extended for 13 weeks at the Acorn Theatre thru April 8th, 2006
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
by Mike Leigh, directed by Scott Elliott
featuring: Max Baker, Lisa Emery, Darren Goldstein, Elizabeth Jasicki,
Jennifer Jason Leigh
A biting satire only Mike Leigh could conceive, Abigail's Party is a dissection of British middle-class life in the 1970s. This tale of suburban London takes place over the course of one night and many cocktails. Romance, revelation and rude behavior follow as two gatherings in neighboring abodes are in full swing.
"EXQUISITE!" - Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
• Lucille Lortel Award Winner •
(Outstanding Costume Design - Eric Becker)
• 4 Lucille Lortel Award nominations •
(Outstanding Revival; Outstanding Director - Scott Elliott
Outstanding Lead Actress - Jennifer Jason Leigh
Outstanding Featured Actor- Darren Goldstein
Outstanding Featured Actress - Lisa Emery
Outstanding Scenic Design - Derek McLane
Outstanding Sound Design - Ken Travis)
