Jessica Chastain was last on Broadway in one of the great classics of the theatrical canon, “A Doll’s House.”
She garnered strong reviews and a Tony nomination for that outing, and now she is embracing a higher level of risk, using her star power to bring to Broadway a drama by an Irish playwright and filmmaker whose work is not well known in the United States.
In “Lost Lear,” a play by Dan Colley, Chastain will star as an actress with dementia whose clearest memories are of rehearsing for a production of “King Lear,” and whose caretakers lean into “Lear” to give her comfort. The play, which premiered in 2022, was inspired by Colley’s observations about his own grandmother’s memory loss, and his research into ideas about care for people with dementia.
“As my grandmother changed — as the disease progressed — it made me wonder about the ways in which we’re all living in different realities,” Colley said in an interview.
Here’s what we know so far:
When is the show?
The production is scheduled to begin performances on March 29, with an opening on April 23 for a 16-week run at the Booth Theater, where the play “Downstate” is currently running.
How did this production come about?
Colley, 39, was home in Dublin this summer when he got a call: Chastain was in Ireland, wrapping up work on the horror film “Other Mommy.” Could he get to the house where she was staying that same day to talk with her?
Colley grabbed a freshly pressed shirt, jumped in a cab and raced to meet her. Chastain, who had just read the play during her lunch break, told him that she wanted to star in it.
“What drew me to it is the relationship to family, and how difficult it can be to find the words to connect,” Chastain said in an interview. “I love how it relates to memory, and the power of theater to make us feel part of something bigger than we are, and of course I studied Shakespeare and love the idea that I would get to speak language as rich as that.”
“Lost Lear” had been staged at Irish theaters in 2022 and 2023, and had toured in several other countries. Then last year it was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was spotted by a group of producers, including Greg Nobile of Seaview, and they got the script to Chastain.
Colley is revising the text slightly, moving the action to the United States from Ireland.
Who is involved?
In addition to Chastain, an Oscar winner for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” who previously appeared on Broadway in “The Heiress” (2012) and “A Doll’s House” (2023), the play will also feature Michael Urie as Chastain’s nurse and Corey Stoll as her estranged son. Chastain and Urie were students together at Juilliard (at one point she played Ophelia to his Hamlet) and she said his involvement was a plus.
“He was there when I fell in love with theater,” she said. “There’s so much history between us.”
Colley will also direct the show — in Ireland, he devises and directs shows, both for children and adults. This will be his Broadway debut, but he has worked in the United States; as a child he played Boy in an Irish production of “Waiting for Godot” that toured to several American cities.
“Lost Lear” features significant use of video and puppetry to depict distortions and breaks in the protagonist’s mind, and the Broadway design team will include the production designer Scott Pask, a three-time Tony Award winner (and 13-time nominee).
“Lost Lear” is being produced by Seaview and MarketStall with Mass Productions.
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