EXCLUSIVE: Punch, the acclaimed new play by the Olivier Award winning James Graham, will open on Broadway this fall as part of the Manhattan Theatre Club‘s 2025-2026 season.
The play, based on the non-fiction book Right from Wrong by Jacob Dunne about a teenager’s fatal act of random violence and his path toward forgiveness, opened to rave reviews when it premiered last year at Nottingham Playhouse. It recently transferred to London’s The Young Vic.
Adam Penford, who directed in the UK, will direct MTC’s production, which will be presented in association with Nottingham Playhouse where Penford serves as Artistic Director. Graham’s Ink was presented at MTC in 2019 and received six Tony Award nominations including Best Play.
MTC also announced today that its Off Broadway 2025-2026 season will include the world premiere of Ngozi Anyanwu’s The Monsters, a co-production with Two River Theater. Anyanwu directs for a winter 2026 production.
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The Monsters is about two siblings, LIL and BIG, who reunite after a long time apart and must wrestle with their pasts. Nigerian-born actress, playwright and director Anyanwu won acclaim for her works Good Grief, The Homecoming Queen, and The Last of the Love Letters.
“All of us at Manhattan Theatre Club are thrilled to welcome the brilliant James Graham back to the Friedman Theatre, where our production of his play Ink received great acclaim in 2019,” said artistic director Lynne Meadow. “James’ fantastic new play Punch will be helmed by British director Adam Penford, who will make his Broadway and American lead directing debut with the show. At City Center, we’re delighted to partner with Two River Theater to produce the world premiere of Ngozi Anyanwu’s The Monsters. We’ve been fans of Ngozi’s work for some time and are excited to bring her to MTC.”
While Punch will be Penford’s Broadway lead director, he was the Associate Director for One Man, Two Guvnors on Broadway.
Additional productions for MTC’s 2025-26 season will be announced soon.
The official synopsis for Punch: “Teenage Jacob spends his days tearing through Nottingham in a whirlwind of drugs, girls, and bar fights — but when he makes a fatal mistake, his life changes forever. As he copes with the consequences of his actions and strives to build a new life, he finds a powerful but precarious source of redemption: the parents of the boy he killed.”
The official synopsis for The Monsters: “For a long time, LIL has been obsessed with fighting, and one fighter in particular: her older brother BIG, an aging but successful figure in the local Mixed Martial Arts circuit. But she’s been doing it all from afar… until one day when she decides to show up on his doorstep…The Monsters is a sibling love story about reunions, resentment, reconnection, and wrestling with demons.”
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