Manhattan Theatre Club—Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director and Chris Jennings, Executive Director—is pleased to announce that performances begin on Monday, November 25 for the Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, a play by Jonathan Spector, directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro (Broadway: August: Osage County). Opening night is Monday, December 16 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street).
The production stars Tony Award nominee Amber Gray (Broadway: Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), two-time Tony Award nominee Jessica Hecht (Broadway: Summer, 1976 at MTC; A View from the Bridge), Tony Award winner Bill Irwin (Broadway: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Largely New York), Emmy Award nominee Thomas Middleditch (Television: “Silicon Valley”), and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz (Television: “Scandal,” “The Resident”).
Jonathan Spector’s explosive and timely comedy had its world premiere at Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, CA., and has been seen Off-Broadway at Colt Coeur and in London at The Old Vic. The New York Times, in their Critic’s Pick review of the Off-Broadway production, praised Eureka Day as “the perfect play for our age of disagreement.”
Eureka Day is a private California elementary school with a Board of Directors that values inclusion above all else—that is until an outbreak of the mumps forces everyone in the community to reconsider the school’s liberal vaccine policy. As cases rise, the board realizes with horror that they’ve got to do what they swore they never would: make a choice that won’t please absolutely everybody.
The production features: scenic design by Tony Award winner Todd Rosenthal; costume design by Tony Award winner Clint Ramos; lighting design by two-time Tony Award nominee Jen Schriever; original music and sound design by Drama Desk Award nominees Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen; projection design by Tony Award nominee David Bengali; intimacy & sensitivity coordinator Ann C. James; vocal coach Gigi Buffington; casting by Caparelliotis Casting & Kelly Gillespie; Production Stage Manager Kevin Bertolacci.
Eureka Day is presented by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, Wagner Johnson Productions, and Seaview Productions.
Major support for Eureka Day is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of The Sloan Initiative: Setting the Stage for Science and Technology. Additional support is provided by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
MTC is pleased to announce that on Wednesday, January 8, following the 7:00 pm performance, there will be a Sloan panel discussion that will address the medical and social impacts of vaccination and public health policy and other scientific themes in the play.
Image credit: Ashton Worthington
