ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY Announces 2023-2024 Season
ON BROADWAY
I NEED THAT starring DANNY DEVITO at the American Airlines Theatre
HOME at the American Airlines Theatre
(one additional Broadway production will be announced at a later date)
OFF-BROADWAY
THE REFUGE PLAYS at the Laura Pels Theatre, in association with New York Theatre Workshop
COVENANT at the Black Box Theatre
JONAH at the Laura Pels Theatre
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I NEED THAT by Theresa Rebeck
October 2023 | American Airlines Theatre on Broadway
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
World Premiere
Danny DeVito returns to Roundabout Theatre Company in I Need That, starring alongside his daughter, Lucy DeVito, and Ray Anthony Thomas in a deeply human new comedy from Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet).
Sam (Danny DeVito) doesn’t get out much. Actually, he doesn’t get out at all, opting instead for the safety of his house in the company of his things’”his many, many things. But when a notice from the government arrives alerting Sam that he must clean up his property or face eviction, he’s forced to reckon with what’s trash, what’s treasure, and whether we can ever know the difference between the two.
HOME by Samm-Art Williams
Spring 2024 | American Airlines Theatre on Broadway
Directed by Kenny Leon
In this Tony Award ®-nominated play, Cephus Miles has the whole world in his callused hands’”until his sweetheart Pattie Mae goes off to college and marries another man. Originally staged by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1979 and featured in the first year of Roundabout’s Refocus Project, Samm-Art Williams’ Home is a muscular and melodic coming-of-age story that gives voice to the unbreakable spirit of all Americans who have been searching for a place to belong.
THE REFUGE PLAYS by Nathan Alan Davis
September 2023 | Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre
Directed by Patricia McGregor
World Premiere / In association with New York Theatre Workshop
Late at night, deep in the woods of southern Illinois, a ghost tells Gail she will die within the next 24 hours. So begins The Refuge Plays, an intergenerational saga that follows a single Black family over 70 years. Written by Nathan Alan Davis, this world-premiere production boldly reimagines what an American “family play” can be.
COVENANT by York Walker
October 2023 | Black Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre
Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene
Roundabout Underground World Premiere
When a struggling guitarist returns to his small Georgia town a blues star, rumors begin swirling that he may have made a deal with the devil to attain his musical genius. Before long, however, it becomes clear he’s not the only one with a secret. A mythic and suspenseful new play that delivers one devilish twist after another, York Walker’s Covenant explores the power of belief and the thin line between rumor and truth. Covenant was first seen as part of Roundabout’s Underground Reading Series in 2022.
JONAH by Rachel Bonds
Spring 2024 | Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre
Directed by Danya Taymor
World Premiere
What’s your fantasy? Ana knows that everybody has one’”her especially, and she’d do anything to make it come true. And when she meets Jonah, a sweet and caring student at her boarding school, everything she’s ever wanted is finally falling into place. Except Jonah, like everything else in this moving world-premiere play from Rachel Bonds, is not all that he seems. A singularly haunting and heart-racing coming-of-age tale that will keep you guessing until its final twisting moments, Jonah is about the true cost of survival, and the lengths some will travel to feel just a little less alone in the world.
BIOGRAPHIES
DANNY DEVITO (“Sam”, I Need That) Throughout his career, DeVito has directed more than 25 projects, including Matilda, Death To Smoochy, The War of the Roses, Hoffa, Throw Momma From the Train, The Ratings Game, and numerous short films, TV movies and episodes of television, including “Taxi.” DeVito has starred in such films as The War of the Roses, Junior, Batman Returns, Twins, Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, Ruthless People, Throw Momma From the Train, Tin Men, Anything Else, Big Fish, Renaissance Man, The Big Kahuna, Heist, The Good Night, Deck The Halls, Relative Strangers, The OH in Ohio, Be Cool and Even Money.
LUCY DEVITO (“Amelia”, I Need That). On stage, DeVito worked with Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron in the original readings of their play Love, Loss, And What Wore. She performed the play many times in New York at the Westside Theater and in Los Angeles at the Geffen Playhouse. Stefanie Zadravec’s The Electric Baby (directed by May Adrales), Bruce Graham’s Any Given Monday, The Diary Of Anne Frank, in which she played Anne, and David Grimm’s The Miracle At Naples directed by Peter Dubois, Bump, Hot Mess, How My Grandparents Fell In Love, and Steel Magnolias.
RAY ANTHONY THOMAS (“Foster”, I Need That). Recent credits: Broadway’” American Buffalo, Trouble In Mind, Jitney, The Crucible, Race. Off-Broadway’”The Trees; Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow; Volunteer Man (Obie Award). Television’”“Law & Order,” “Flatbush Misdemeanors,” “New Amsterdam,” “Social Distance,” “High Maintenance.” Film: The Untitled Novelist Project, The Rest Of Us, Isn’t It Romantic, Harbinger, Shutter Island, Trouble With The Curve.
THERESA REBECK (Playwright, I Need That) Her work on Broadway includes Bernhardt/Hamlet, Dead Accounts, Seminar and Mauritius. Other notable New York and regional plays include Poor Behavior, Seared (MCC), Downstairs (Primary Stages), The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels (Second Stage), Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House (Playwrights Horizons), The Understudy (Roundabout), View of the Dome (NYTW), What We’re Up Against (Women’s Project), Omnium Gatherum (Pulitzer Prize finalist). Her latest play, Mad House, played a critically acclaimed world premiere on London’s West End starring David Harbour and Bill Pullman.
MORITZ VON STUELPNAGEL (Director, I Need That). Broadway: Theresa Rebeck’s Bernhardt/Hamlet starring Janet McTeer; Noël Coward’s Present Laughter starring Kevin Kline; Robert Askins’ Hand to God. London’s West End: Theresa Rebeck’s Mad House starring David Harbour and Bill Pullman; Hand to God (Olivier nomination). Off-Broadway: Theresa Rebeck’s Seared (MCC); Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons); Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick (Ma-Yi/Public Theater); Nick Jones’ Important Hats of the Twentieth Century (Manhattan Theatre Club); Nick Jones’ Verité (Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3); Mike Lew’s Bike America (Ma-Yi); Nick Jones’ Trevor (Lesser America); Robert Askins’ Love Song of the Albanian Sous Chef (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Mel & El (Ars Nova); Michael Mitnick’s Spacebar (Studio 42); and Adam Szymkowicz’s My Base and Scurvy Heart (Studio 42).
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SAMM-ART WILLIAMS (Playwright, Home) is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and producer. As a playwright, Williams has written Home, Welcome To Black River, Friends, and other plays produced in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities. Home received a Tony nomination as Best Broadway Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk nomination, the NAACP Image Award, and the North Carolina Governor’s Award. For the screen, Samm-Art Williams has written “Solomon Northup’s Odyssey” (PBS), “John Henry” (Showtime), “Badges” (CBS), and episodes for “Cagney and Lacey,” “The New Mike Hammer,” “Miami Vice,” and other programs.
KENNY LEON (Director, Home) is a Tony Award-winning director honored with the George Abbott Lifetime Achievement for American Theatre. Mr. Leon is on the producing team of Some Like It Hot, the musical directed by Casey Nicholaw. Broadway: A Soldier’s Play; American Son; Children of a Lesser God; Holler If Ya Hear Me; A Raisin in the Sun; The Mountaintop; Stick Fly; August Wilson’s Fences, Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf. Off-Broadway: The Underlying Chris, Everybody’s Ruby, Emergence-See! (The Public); Smart People (Second Stage). Television: Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia; Colin in Black & White; 4400; Amend: The Fight for America; American Son (adapted for Netflix); Hairspray Live!; The Wiz Live!; Steel Magnolias; Dynasty; In My Dreams. Author: Take You Wherever You Go. Artistic Director Emeritus, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. Senior Resident Director: Roundabout Theatre Company. Leon most recently directed this fall’s critically acclaimed productions of Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog.
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NATHAN ALAN DAVIS (Playwright, The Refuge Plays). Plays include Nat Turner in Jerusalem (NYTW), The High Ground (Arena Stage), Eternal Life Part 1 (Wilma Theater), Origin Story (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), The Wind and the Breeze (Cygnet Theatre), and Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea (NNPN Rolling World Premiere).
PATRICIA MCGREGOR (Director, The Refuge Plays) is the Artistic Director of New York Theatre Workshop. Her productions include Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole (Geffen Playhouse); Sisters in Law (Wallis); Shakespeare: Call and Response, Krapp’s Last Tape, What You Are, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Measure for Measure (The Old Globe); Skeleton Crew (Geffen Playhouse); Good Grief (Center Theatre Group); Hamlet (The Public Theater); Place (Brooklyn Academy of Music); The Parchman Hour (Guthrie Theater); Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company); brownsville song (Lincoln Center Theater); Indomitable: James Brown (Apollo Theater); Holding It Down (The Metropolitan Museum of Art); A Raisin in the Sun, The Winter’s Tale and Spunk (Cal Shakes); Adoration of the Old Woman (INTAR Theatre); Blood Dazzler (Harlem Stage); Four Electric Ghosts (The Kitchen); and the world premiere of Hurt Village (Signature Theatre Company).
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YORK WALKER (Playwright, Covenant) is from Chicago, Illinois. His work includes Holcomb & Hart (Victory Garden’s New Plays For A New Year Festival), The Séance (Winner of the John Singleton Short Film Competition), Covenant (Colman Domingo Award, Fire This Time Festival), White Shoes (Fire This Time Festival), Summer Of ’63 (American Conservatory Theatre’s New Play Series, Actors Company Theatre’s New TACTics Festival), and Soul Records (Manhattan Theatre Club’s Groundworks Lab). York received his MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and is currently developing work with Roundabout Theatre Company and South Coast Repertory Theatre.
TIFFANY NICHOLE GREENE (Director, Covenant) was the original resident director of Hamilton: An American Musical (Philip Tour). Recent directing credits include the off-Broadway premiere of Steph Del Rosso’s 53% OF at Second Stage Theater; Christina Ham’s Nina Simone: Four Women at Arizona Theatre Company; the world premiere of Vichet Chum’s High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest at the Alley Theatre; the world premiere of Invincible at The Wallis, featuring the music of Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo; the world premiere of Deneen Reynolds-Knott’s Shoebox Picnic: Route One at Alabama Shakespeare Theatre; Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders for the Goodman Theatre’s Live series; and Something Grim(M) for Dallas Theatre Center, a devised outdoor theatrical experience that she also wrote.
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RACHEL BONDS (Playwright, Jonah) has had plays developed or produced by Ars Nova, Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, McCarter Theatre Center, Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Studio Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, and Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. Her plays have been twice-named a New York Times Critic’s Pick.
DANYA TAYMOR (Director, Jonah) recently directed the World Premiere musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s seminal novel The Outsiders (La Jolla Playhouse) Broadway: Pass Over (August Wilson Theater). Other: Will Arbery’s Heroes Of The Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons, Pulitzer Prize Finalist) and Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (New Group), Samuel Beckett’s ENDGAME (Gate, Dublin), Jeremy O. Harris’s Daddy (Almeida, London + New Group/Vineyard), Korde Arrington Tuttle’s Graveyard Shift (Goodman Theater), Pass Over (Lincoln Center + Steppenwolf, Lortel Outstanding Play), Danai Gurira’s Familiar (Steppenwolf), Martyna Majok’s Queens (Lincoln Center Theater), Justin Kuritzkes’ The Sensuality Party (The New Group), Susan Soon-He Stanton’s Cygnus (Women’s Project), Brian Watkins’ Wyoming (Lesser America) and My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer (The Flea), and Sarah Gancher’s The Place We Built (The Flea).
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Roundabout Theatre Company celebrates the power of theatre by spotlighting classics from the past, cultivating new works of the present, and educating minds for the future. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills that mission by producing familiar and lesser-known plays and musicals; discovering and supporting talented playwrights; reducing the barriers that can inhibit theatergoing; collaborating with a diverse team of artists; building educational experiences; and archiving over five decades of production history. This variety of plays and musicals are on its five stages: Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre, Studio 54 and Stephen Sondheim Theatre, and Off-Broadway’s Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre.