Photos: First Look at COAL COUNTRY; Opens Tonight at the Cherry Lane Theatre

We've got your first look at Coal Country, written by Drama Desk winners Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen with original music written and performed by three-time Grammy Award winner Steve Earle. Produced by Audible Theater, this return engagement of The Public Theater's production opens tonight, Thursday March 10 at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, NYC).

The cast of Coal Country features Mary Bacon (Patti), Amelia Campbell (Mindi), Kym Gomes (Judge), Ezra Knight (Roosevelt), Thomas Kopache (Gary), Michael Laurence (Tommy), Deirdre Madigan (Judy), and Carl Palmer (Goose). Steve Earle returns to perform his original score, with select performances by Joe Jung.

Directed by Jessica Blank, Coal Country's world premiere run opened as a New York Times Critic's Pick on March 3, 2020. Before an untimely closing in the face of the pandemic, The New York Times called it "devasting and heart-wrenching," The Hollywood Reporter said it is "political theater of the most lucid, urgent, and necessary kind, given soaring emotional heft by Steve Earle's songs," and The New Yorker praised it as "an outstanding, outraged, life-filled documentary play."

In September 2021, Audible recorded and released the play, with the majority of the original cast, as an Audible Original (available here), giving the riveting documentary play new life and extending its reach to millions of Audible listeners around the world.

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the creative minds behind the award-winning docudrama The Exonerated, bring their signature style to this strikingly innovative New York Times Critic's Pick that delves into the aftermath of the West Virginia mine explosion of 2010, highlighting the indomitable resilience of an American community on a quest for justice.

Featuring the musical talents of three-time Grammy Award winner Steve Earle (the Audible Original (The Moment in) 1965 (When Rock and Roll Becomes Art), Coal Country powerfully combines the country/folk legend's "soaring emotional heft and superbly evocative string-picking" (The Hollywood Reporter) with actual first-person accounts from survivors and family members, immortalizing their stories of survival in this soulful yet resolute tribute.

The show's original creative team reunites for this production: Richard Hoover (scenic design), Jessica Jahn (costume design), David Lander (lighting design), Darron L West (sound design), and Adesola Osakalumi (movement director), in addition to Janelle Caso (Production Stage Manager) and Andy Jones & Dylan Pager (General Management, Baseline Theatrical). Casting by Jordan Thaler & Kate Murray with additional Casting by X Casting, Victor Vazquez.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus