![]() Peel, the city council freshman who has questions about the last city council meeting, primarily because one of his colleagues, a Mr. The Minutes has been cast with a mix of Steppenwolf and Broadway actors-plus Noah Reid, late of Schitt’s Creek and the Hammer replacement, who plays a Mr. I’d rather people look at my play and say, ‘Boy! He sure got that wrong.’ I’d rather be the one who’s wrong and have a better world than have all this stuff come true.” “After we were shut down, a lot of the actors got on a text-thread with each other just to keep in touch, and, as each of these incidents happened-whether it was removing statues or rewriting the history books or fudging some version of history-we’d write each other and say, ‘Can you believe this stuff is really happening?’ “I’m sad to see how much of it has come true,” Letts says. The COVID-19 lockdown stopped The Minutes from ticking three days before its 2020 premiere-back then, the play was at the Cort Theater, and the lead was Armie Hammer-and in the long, long interval that followed, manifestations of today’s uncivil political realities became plentiful. Letts wrote this play during the 2016 political campaign at the first flicker of Trumpism, and you can sense his blood boiling. ![]() It’s a satire of small-town bureaucracy that grows progressively darker as it careens toward a frenzied finale. These days you’ll find both Letts in full sway at Studio 54 in The Minutes, a 2018 Pulitzer finalist and a 2022 Best Play Tony contender. A friend of mine calls it ‘crop rotation.’” I don’t really consider myself more one than the other. “Whenever I’m writing, I think, ‘Oh, God! It would be nice just to be an actor right now and not have to worry about all the things people will say and do.’ Then, when I’m acting, I think, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to be writing alone in my office?’ I’m very fortunate that I can do both. “I’ve done them both so long now I don’t know which one takes precedence over the other,” he admits. Richards also was lead producer on August: Osage County and Letts’ Superior Donuts on Broadway.Letts may be best known right now as an actor-he’s burning up the tracks on stage and screen-but personally the 56-year-old Oklahoman finds the two roles mesh together seamlessly. Lead producers on the run are Jeffrey Richards, Rebecca Gold, Carl Moellenberg, Spencer Ross, Steve Traxler and Jacob Soroken Porter. Letts will play the mayor of Big Cherry, the play’s fictional small-town setting, while Hammer, who made his Broadway debut last season in Straight White Men, will play an idealistic whistleblower character newly elected to the council. Critics in Chicago called the play a perfect response to Trump’s America, even though the current White House occupant is never named. Both The Minutes and Linda Vista will be eligible for 2020 Tony Awards consideration.Ī satirical view of municipal civics that reflects the contentious divisions tearing apart the country and shredding democracy, The Minutes examines the inner workings of a city council meeting in which hypocrisy, lies, greed and ambition lay waste to any sense of a functioning community. Letts joins a relatively small group of living playwrights who have had two works produced on Broadway in the same season. The limited 16-week engagement is scheduled to run through June 14. 25 ahead of a March 15 official opening at the Cort Theatre. Shapiro, another Tony winner for August: Osage County, the production begins previews Feb. Cliff Chamberlain, who also appeared in the original production of Letts’ play, will switch to a different role on Broadway.ĭirected by Anna D. Todd Freeman, Austin Pendleton and Jessie Mueller, marking the first non-musical role on Broadway for the Beautiful Tony winner.Ĭompany members reprising their roles from the play’s 2017 premiere at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company are Ian Barford and Sally Murphy, both of whom are currently on Broadway in Letts’ Linda Vista, as well as Danny McCarthy and Jeff Still, the latter two fresh from yearlong stints in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Letts, who won both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County as well as a lead actor Tony for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, also joins the cast, along with Blair Brown, K. Armie Hammer will return to Broadway this season as part of the ensemble cast of Tracy Letts‘ new play, The Minutes.
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