PRIMA FACIE, Starring Jodie Comer, Will Open at the Golden Theatre

Jodie Comer ("Killing Eve," Free Guy) will make her highly anticipated Broadway debut in the US premiere of Prima Facie, a new play by Suzie Miller. Directed by Justin Martin (The Jungle) and produced by Empire Street Productions, Prima Facie opens on Sunday, April 23, 2023 at the Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street). Previews begin on Tuesday, April 11, 2023.

Jodie Comer today said, "I cannot wait to continue the journey with Prima Facie on Broadway this coming spring. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine having the opportunity to play on Broadway with a story as unique and thought provoking as this one. I'm honored that a theatre as rich in history as the Golden Theatre will be home to it."

Prima Facie will play a strictly limited engagement for 10 weeks only. Tickets go on general sale on Wednesday, November 16 at 10:00 AM exclusively at Telecharge.com.

Tessa (Comer) is a thoroughbred. A young, brilliant barrister. She has worked her way up from working class origins to be at the top of her game; defending; cross examining and winning, until an unexpected event forces her to confront the lines where the patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge.

The West End production of Prima Facie worked with The Schools Consent Project, a UK-based charity founded by Kate Parker that educates young people on issues surrounding consent and sexual assault. In addition to fundraising and donations, the production worked with the charity and various school groups to foster further understanding and education. Empire Street Productions announces that Prima Facie on Broadway will continue to work with The Schools Consent Project to extend the organization's outreach to US schools.

Prima Facie will also work with Everyone's Invited, a digital safe place for survivors to share their stories completely anonymously. Founded by Soma Sara, Everyone's Invited provides many survivors a sense of relief, catharsis, empowerment, and gives them a feeling of community and hope.

The production is also pleased to announce The Prima Facie Pro Bono Project, which will offer a low-price ticket lottery and rush policy for every performance to ensure economic accessibility to the production for all. The initiative will also provide special free ticket access to specific partner and community organizations. Further details about the initiative will be announced closer to the start of performances.

Jodie Comer earned rave reviews for her West End debut in Prima Facie, which played April 15-June 18, 2022 at the Harold Pinter Theatre. She has received The Stage's 2022 Best West End Debut Award and has been nominated for a 2022 Evening Standard Award for Best Actress. The filmed version of the West End Prima Facie is the highest-grossing cinema event of all time in the UK and Ireland and played to capacity audiences in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Comer won a 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for her mesmerizing performance as the psychopathic Russian assassin Villanelle in the BBC spy series, "Killing Eve." She has also received two British Academy Television Awards for "Killing Eve" and "Help." Her credits include the films The Last Duel and Free Guy, and the TV series, "Thirteen," "The White Princess," and "Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned." Upcoming roles include the films The End We Start From, and The Bikeriders.

Anglo-Australian playwright Suzie Miller is a former human rights and children's rights lawyer. Prima Facie originally premiered in 2019 in Sydney where it won the 2020 Australian Writers' Guild Award for Drama, the 2020 David Williamson Award for Outstanding Theatre Writing, and the 2020 prestigious Major Australian Writers' Guild Award across all categories of theatre, film, and television.

Director Justin Martin is best known for his staging of The Jungle, which has played at the Young Vic, the West End, St. Ann's Warehouse in New York, and in San Francisco. Other credits include Low Level Panic, Last Chance: A Plea For the Unaccompanied Children of Calais, The Nether, Fifty Two, Good Chance/No Chance, Harvey and Frieda, Street, The Kitchen and Skintight.

Prima Facie features an original score by Rebecca Lucy TAYLOR, who is better known as Self Esteem, and who completed her debut US Tour earlier this year for her new album, Prioritise Pleasure. She will embark on a UK tour in 2023, before returning to the US for a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on April 12, 2023. Her soundtrack album for Prima Facie is available on digital streaming services.

Set and costume design is by two-time Tony Award nominee Miriam Buether. Lighting design is by Drama Desk nominee Natasha Chivers. Sound design is by Drama Desk Award winners Ben & Max Ringham. Video is by William Williams for Treatment Studio. US general management is by 101 Productions Ltd.

BIOGRAPHIES

Jodie Comer (Tessa) rose to prominence in "My Mad Fat Diary," "Lady Chatterley's Lover," and "Doctor Foster." She was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2016. In the same year she received her first BAFTA TV nomination for her lead role in "Thirteen." In 2017, she played the title role in "The White Princess." In 2019, for her role in "Killing Eve," Jodie won the Leading Actress Award at the BAFTA TV Awards, the Primetime Emmys, the Royal Television Society Awards and the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. More recently, she has starred with Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy, in Ridley Scott's The Last Duel alongside Matt Damon and Adam Driver, and executive produced and starred in "Help," winning the Leading Actress BAFTA for her performance. Jodie recently made her stage debut in the UK premiere of Prima Facie at the Harold Pinter Theatre to huge critical acclaim. Following this, she will star in the feature film The End We Start From by Alice Birch from the acclaimed novel by Megan Hunter, and is currently filming Jeff Nichols' feature film, The Bikeriders.

Suzie Miller (Playwright) is a contemporary international playwright, librettist and screenwriter drawn to complex human stories often exploring injustice. She won the Australian Writers' Guild and Kit Denton Fellowship for Writing with Courage in 2008. Born in Melbourne, she now resides between London and Sydney. Miller has been produced around the world winning multiple prestigious awards. Prima Facie (premiered 2019, Griffin Theatre) won the 2020 Australian Writers' Guild Award for Drama; the 2020 David Williamson Award for Outstanding Theatre Writing; and the 2020 prestigious Major Australian Writers' Guild Award across all categories of theatre, film, and television. Its premier production earned five-star reviews across all platforms. Suzie has a background in law and science, and is currently developing major theatre, film and television projects across the UK, US, and Australia. Suzie worked as a human rights lawyer and a children's rights lawyer before leaving the law and moving to London in 2010 with her young family to pursue a theatre writing career full time.

Justin Martin (Director) is an award-winning director working in theatre, film and television. He has worked throughout North America, Europe and Australasia. Most recently, Justin co-directed with Stephen Daldry the critically acclaimed Together for BBC films (starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan). He is also currently developing a film adaptation of the hit play The Jungle for the BBC. His critically acclaimed production of The Jungle (A Young Vic/National Theatre co-production) most recently played in San Francisco, following sell-out seasons at St Ann's Warehouse in New York, in the West End and at The Young Vic. The show garnered awards including an Obie, a Southbank Sky Arts Award and a Broadway World Award for Best Direction. Justin's critically acclaimed production of Low Level Panic sold out twice at the Galway Theatre Festival before touring throughout Ireland and to a sell-out season in Australia. Other recent theatre credits include Last Chance: A Plea For the Unaccompanied Children of Calais (Young Vic) starring Carey Mulligan, Juliet Stevenson, Joely Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave and Samuel West; The Nether (Seymour Centre, Sydney); Far Away (fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne); Fifty Two (Leicester Square Theatre); Good Chance/No Chance (as part of the Southbank Centre's Festival of Love); Harvey and Frieda (Arcola Theatre); Street (Mick Laly Theatre - Galway Theatre Festival), The Kitchen (HM Theatre, Victoria) and Skintight (fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne). Justin has a long collaboration with director Stephen Daldry. Most recently, Justin was the associate director for Stephen's award-winning production of The Inheritance (Young Vic/West End/Broadway). He was the associate director for both Skylight (starring Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan) and The Audience (starring first Helen Mirren and later Kristin Scott Thomas) both in the West End and on Broadway. He also worked with John Tiffany and Steven Hoggett on The National Theatre of Scotland's production of Let the Right One In (Dundee Rep/Royal Court/West End/St Ann's, NY/US Tour). He was an associate director on Billy Elliot the Musical working on Broadway, throughout North America, South Korea, Amsterdam, and Australia. Other screen credits include work on seasons 1 and 2 of the award-winning Netflix series The Crown and on hugely successful NT Live performances of Skylight and The Audience. Justin is an associate artist with Good Chance Theatre - a company dedicated to making work with and about refugees. He has directed a number of works for them, including most recently working on a number of promos for The Walk - a theatre festival spanning 8000km from The Syrian border to Manchester. He was the inaugural recipient of the Roger Leach Award for Theatre. Justin continues to develop work with some of the world's most renowned theatre, film, and television companies. He is attached to direct new plays in London, Sydney, and New York when COVID 19 abates. He is also currently developing film and television projects in the UK, US, and Australia.

Empire Street Productions (Producer) was set up by James Bierman to develop and produce work across theatre, television, and film. Recent Theatre credits include Macbeth starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga on Broadway; Sam Shepard's True West starring Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn at the Vaudeville Theatre; Tracy Letts' Killer Joe at the Trafalgar Studio starring Orlando Bloom; with new dates for the postponed Martin McDonagh's iconic The Pillowman, directed by Matthew Dunster to come. Ballywater, a BFI, Screen Ireland and NIS supported feature film by Stacey Gregg and directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah opened the Belfast Film Festival. Documentary The Real Charlie Chaplin, directed by Peter Middleton & James Spinney is on release. ESP are currently developing Film and Television projects with Filmnation, Complete Fiction, EOne and Content Superba. As Executive Producer at The Donmar Warehouse (200611), Bierman was involved in over 45 productions which won numerous awards including Tony, Drama Desk, Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and South Bank Awards including John Logan's RED starring Eddie Redmayne and Alfred Molina; Frost Nixon starring Michael Sheen and Frank Langella; Mary Stuart starring Harriet Walter and Janet McTeer ; and Hamlet starring Jude Law. As a producer at the Michael Grandage Company (MGC), which he founded with Grandage in 2011, he produced a hugely successful season of work at the Noel Coward Theatre, in London's West End: Privates on Parade starring Simon Russell Beale, A Midsummer Night's Dream starring Sheridan Smith and David Walliams, Peter and Alice starring Dame Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw, Henry V starring Jude Law, and The Cripple of Inishmaan starring Daniel Radcliffe, which went on to play the Cort Theater on Broadway. Following on from the success of this season, he produced Photograph 51 starring Nicole Kidman, and The Dazzle with Emily Dobbs, starring Andrew Scott. Bierman's first feature film, Genius, written by Academy Award nominee John Logan and starring Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney, premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in 2016. empirestreetproductions.com

Photo Credit: Helen Murray