Birthday Candles is a play by Noah Haidle. It was originally scheduled to open on April 2, 2020, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. [1] It subsequently ran at the American Airlines Theatre from March 18 to May 29, 2022 (with opening night on April 10), starring Debra Messing as Ernestine Ashworth and directed by Messing's Tisch School of the Arts classmate Vivienne Benesch. [2] [3]
In the play, Ashworth recreates the same birthday cake each year as she ages from 17 to 101 without any external signs of aging, and Messing is on stage for the entire show. [4] [5] Birthday Candles was commissioned by Detroit Public Theatre in fall 2016, and Benesch oversaw a workshop during her tenure as artistic director of the Chautauqua Theater Company. Benesch directed a Chautauqua production in 2017 before it made its debut in Detroit in 2018. [2]
In November 2022, The play was translated into Hebrew and performed at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv, Israel. [6]
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye. An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village.
Company is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The original 1970 production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards, winning six. Company was among the first book musicals to deal with contemporary dating, marriage, and divorce, and is a notable example of a concept musical lacking a linear plot. In a series of vignettes, Company follows bachelor Bobby interacting with his married friends, who throw a party for his 35th birthday.
Patti Ann LuPone is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theater. After starting her professional career with The Acting Company in 1972 she soon gained acclaim for her leading performances on the Broadway and West End stage. She has won three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, and two Grammy Awards, and was a 2006 inductee to the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Debra Lynn Messing is an American actress. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Messing starred in the television series, Ned and Stacey on Fox (1995–1997), and Prey on ABC (1998). She achieved her breakthrough role as Grace Adler, an interior designer, on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, for which she received seven Golden Globe Award nominations and five Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, winning once, in 2003.
Dianne Evelyn Wiest is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994's Bullets Over Broadway, one Golden Globe Award for Bullets over Broadway, the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for 1989's Parenthood.
Jeffrey Warren Daniels is an American actor. He is known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, in addition to nominations for five Golden Globe Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Tony Awards.
Old Times is a play by Harold Pinter. It was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre in London on 1 June 1971. It starred Colin Blakely, Dorothy Tutin, and Vivien Merchant, and was directed by Peter Hall. The play was dedicated to Hall to celebrate his 40th birthday.
Sam Levene was an American Broadway, films, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and drama theatrical stage productions. He also acted in over 50 films across the United States and abroad.
Debra Jo Rupp is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as Kitty Forman in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006) and its Netflix sequel series That '90s Show (2023–present). Rupp also had roles in the NBC sitcom Friends (1997–1998), the ABC animated series Teacher's Pet (2000–2002) and its 2004 sequel film, the ABC sitcom Better with You (2010–2011), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ miniseries WandaVision (2021) and Agatha All Along (2024).
Frank William Chase is an American actor, director, and singer, best known for his work on Broadway and for his role as country superstar Luke Wheeler on ABC's Nashville.
Christian Dominique Borle is an American actor and singer. He is a two-time Tony Award winner for his roles as Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher and as William Shakespeare in Something Rotten! Borle also originated the roles of Prince Herbert, et al. in Spamalot, Emmett in Legally Blonde, and Joe in Some Like It Hot on Broadway. He starred as Marvin in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos. He also starred as Tom Levitt on the NBC musical-drama television series Smash and Vox in the adult animated black comedy musical series Hazbin Hotel.
Ann Harada is an American actress and singer who was first known for the musical Avenue Q, in which she originated the role of Christmas Eve, the heavily accented Japanese therapist.
Michael Kahn CBE is an American theater director and drama educator. He was the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. from 1986 until his retirement in 2019. He held the position of Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School from 1992 to 2006.
John Arthur Lithgow is an American actor. He studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his diverse work on stage and screen. He has received numerous accolades including six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and four Grammy Awards. Lithgow has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2005.
Lucy Chet DeVito is an American actress. She was a recurring character on ABC Family's Melissa & Joey (2010–2012), starred in the Hulu sitcom Deadbeat (2014–2015), and was a main voice actor and executive producer of the FXX animated comedy Little Demon (2022). DeVito has appeared in a number of theater productions, including her Broadway debut I Need That (2023). Since 2007, she has been a member of the New York developmental theater company Ensemble Studio Theater.
Outside Mullingar is a play by John Patrick Shanley, which ran on Broadway in 2014.
Waitress is a musical with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson. Based on the 2007 film of the same name, written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, it tells the story of Jenna Hunterson, a baker and waitress in an abusive relationship with her husband, Earl. After Jenna unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she begins an affair with her doctor, Dr. James "Jim" Pomatter. Looking for ways out of her troubles, she sees a pie baking contest and its grand prize as her chance.
Indecent is a 2015 American play by Paula Vogel. It recounts the controversy surrounding the play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, which was produced on Broadway in 1923, and for which the producer and cast were arrested and convicted on the grounds of obscenity.
Vivienne Benesch is a theatre director and former artistic director of the Chautauqua Theatre who is currently artistic director at North Carolina's PlayMakers Repertory Company, a position she has held since 2016. As part of her work at PlayMakers, Benesch focuses on amplifying the work of women playwrights through their @PLAY program.
Ethan McSweeny is an American theatre director. He served as artistic director of the American Shakespeare Center from 2018 to 2021.