Tony-Winning Thanksgiving Family Drama THE HUMANS Becomes Top-Grossing Play of 2016

The most acclaimed, celebrated, and awarded American play in recent memory, The Humans, was also the top-grossing play of 2016 with box office receipts totaling $23,004,513.38.

The reigning Tony Award-winning Best Play is now in the final weeks of its year-long, smash hit Broadway run. It will play its final Broadway performance on Sunday, January 15, 2017 at its third New York home, the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre,

After transferring from Off Broadway's Laura Pels Theatre, the Broadway production began performances on Sunday, January 24, 2016 and officially opened on Thursday, February 18 at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Sweeping the 2016 Awards Season, including winning the Tony Award for Best Play, the limited engagement was extended and moved, on August 9, to the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, thereby doubling its capacity. At the time of its closing, The Humans will have played 502 performances in New York.

As previously announced, The Humans will kick off its coast-to-coast National Tour at Seattle Repertory Theatre in November 2017, before moving on to engagements in top markets across the United States. The tour will feature the entire creative team from the Broadway production, led by Tony Award winning director Joe Mantello and including Tony Award winning scenic designer David Zinn, costume designer Sarah Laux, lighting designer Justin Townsend, and Sound Designer Fitz Patton. A complete touring schedule, as well as casting, will be announced shortly.

Garnering the most ecstatic reviews of any play in recent memory, and heralded as "The Best Play of the Year" by The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Record, Time Out New York, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and The Wrap, the Broadway production of Stephen Karam's The Humans is directed by Joe Mantello and the ensemble cast includes Cassie Beck, 2016 Tony Award-winner Reed Birney, 2016 Tony Award-winner Jayne Houdyshell, Lauren Klein, Arian Moayed and Sarah Steele.

The Humans is the recipient of four Tony Awards including Best Play (Author, Stephen Karam), Best Featured Actress in a Play (Jayne Houdyshell), Best Featured Actor in a Play (Reed Birney), and Best Scenic Design of a Play (David Zinn), 4 Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play, Outstanding Lighting Design of a Play (Justin Townsend), Outstanding Sound Design in a Play (Fitz Patton) and a 2016 Special Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble. The Humans has been named the Best Play of the Year by the New York Drama Critics' Circle, the Outer Critics Circle, and the Drama League. The Obie Awards honored Stephen Karam with a 2016 Award for Playwriting and Jayne Houdyshell with a 2016 Award for Performance.

The angst, anguish and amity of the American middle class are first coaxed - then shoved - into the light in this uproarious, hopeful, and heart-breaking play that takes place over the course of a family dinner on Thanksgiving. Breaking with tradition, Erik Blake (Birney) has brought his Pennsylvania family to celebrate and give thanks at his daughter's apartment in lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside the ramshackle pre-war duplex, and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the Blake clan's deepest fears and greatest follies are laid bare. Our modern age of anxiety is keenly observed, with humor and compassion, in this new American classic.

The Humans is Stephen Karam's second play commissioned by Roundabout Theatre Company, following his Pulitzer Prize Finalist Sons of the Prophet (his first Roundabout commission; 2011) and the hugely acclaimed premiere of Speech & Debate (2007). Karam's work at Roundabout is a part of their New Play Initiative; a collection of programs designed to foster and produce new work by emerging and established artists.

The Humans is produced on Broadway by Scott Rudin, Barry Diller, Roundabout Theatre Company, Fox Theatricals, James L. Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer, Roy Furman, Daryl Roth,Jon B. Platt, Eli Bush, Broadway Across America, Jack Lane, Barbara Whitman, Jay Alix & Una Jackman, Scott M. Delman, Sonia Friedman, Amanda Lipitz, Peter May, Stephanie P. McClelland, Lauren Stein, and The Shubert Organization. Joey Parnes, Sue Wagner, and John Johnson serve as Executive Producers.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus