Second Stage Theater, one of the four nonprofits with Broadway houses, said it would present the plays “Marjorie Prime” and “Becky Shaw,” both of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in drama, at its Helen Hayes Theater this season.
The organization, beginning the first season programmed by its new artistic director, Evan Cabnet, said that it would continue its focus on work by contemporary American writers.
“Marjorie Prime,” written by Jordan Harrison, is about an older woman whose companion is a hologram of her dead husband fueled by artificial intelligence. The play was staged by Center Theater Group in Los Angeles in 2014, then by Playwrights Horizons in New York in 2015, and was adapted into a movie in 2017. Ben Brantley, then a theater critic for The New York Times, called the play “elegant, thoughtful and quietly unsettling”; the Pulitzer board described it as “a sly and surprising work about technology and artificial intelligence told through images and ideas that resonate.”
The new production will be directed by Anne Kauffman, who also directed the Off Broadway production. It is scheduled to begin previews on Nov. 20 and to open on Dec. 8.
“Becky Shaw,” written by Gina Gionfriddo, is a dark comedy about a bad date. The play was staged at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky., in 2008, and then opened at Second Stage’s Off Broadway theater in 2009. Charles Isherwood, then a theater critic for The Times, called the play “as engrossing as it is ferociously funny, like a big box of fireworks fizzing and crackling across the stage from its first moments to its last”; the Pulitzer board described it as “a jarring comedy that examines family and romantic relationships with a lacerating wit while eschewing easy answers and pat resolutions.”
The new production will be directed by Trip Cullman, beginning previews on March 18 and opening on April 8.
Second Stage did not announce casting for either play. The nonprofit organization said its new season would also include three Off Broadway plays: “Meet the Cartozians,” written by Talene Monahon and directed by David Cromer; “Meat Suit,” written and directed by Aya Ogawa; and a revival of “The Receptionist,” a 2007 play written by Adam Bock. All three will be staged at the Pershing Square Signature Center, where Second Stage has presented its Off Broadway work since giving up its lease on the Tony Kiser Theater.
Michael Paulson is the theater reporter for The Times.
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