Clifford Odets' classic drama Awake and Sing!, directed by Bartlett Sher, will open on Monday, April 17th, on Broadway at the Belasco
Theatre (111 West 44 Street), the very theatre where the play had its
world premiere in 1935.
The show began previews on March 24th. Lincoln Center Theater's production will celebrate
Odets' centenary.
Lauren Ambrose ("Six Feet Under"), Mark Ruffalo (films such as 13 Going on 30, off-Bway's This is Our Youth) Ben Gazzara (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Jonathan Hadary (All Shook Up, Gypsy), and Zoe Wanamaker (Electra, Piaf) star in the play, which also features Ned Eisenberg (The Green Bird), Peter Kybart (Judgment at Nuremberg, The Diary of Anne Frank), Pablo Schreiber (Mr. Marmalade) and Richard Topol (Julius Caesar, The School for Scandal). Awake and Sing! reunites The Light in the Piazza
director Barlett Sher with that musical's Tony Award winning design
team -- set designer Michael Yeargan, costume designer Catherine Zuber
and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind. "Awake and Sing! is the story
of a Jewish family in the Bronx who have fallen on hard times during the
Depression. Widely considered Odets' masterpiece, the drama premiered
on Broadway in 1935 and, a resounding hit, was the legendary Group Theatre's
first Broadway production," according to press notes. The Flowering Peach was the last Odets show to be revived on Broadway; it was produced in 1994. A 1984 revival of Awake and Sing! starred Nancy Marchand, Harry Hamlin, Frances McDormand and Dick Latessa. Others were mounted in 1938 and 1939.
Known for plays that fought social injustice, Odets also wrote Waiting for Lefty, Golden Boy, Clash By Night, The Big Knife and The Country Girl, among others. Sweet Smell of Success was his most famous screenplay. The
performance schedule for the show is Tuesday through Saturday evenings
at 8pm, with matinees Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2pm and Sundays at
3pm. (There is no Saturday matinee on March 25.). Tickets, priced at
$51.25 to $86.25, are available at the Belasco Theater Box office (111
West 44 Street) or by calling Telecharge at (212) 239-6200. For more
information, visit www.lincolncenter.org.