Detroit Public Theatre is full of joy Monday after they learning its first-ever commissioned play, "Birthday Candles," will be heading to Broadway in 2020.
The theater premiered playwright's Noah Haidle,"Birthday Candles" in May 2018 as the final play in the theater's third season. Haidle is a theater artist and a founding board member of the company. Vivienne Benesch who directed the world premiere at DPT, will be directing the Broadway premiere as well.
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"As a very young theater company, Detroit Public Theatre was thrilled to offer our first new play commission to Noah Haidle in 2017," Sara Clare Corporandy, a DPT producing artistic director and co-founder said."We made the bold choice to promise Noah his play would receive a full production in our third season without even knowing what the play is even about." She went on to say faith they had in each other led to collaborative work with Chautaqua Theatre Company and Haidle.
This year the American Theatre Critics Association honored "Birthday Candles" with a Steinberg New Play citation.
In the play's broadway debut, Debra Messing, of the TV sit-com "Will and Grace," will return to the stage as Ernestine Ashworth, who spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. It becomes a trend that continues through five generations, dozens of goldfish, an infinity of dreams and one cake baked over a century.
"Birthday Candles" will begin preview performances on April 2, 2020, and open officially April 21, 2020. There will be a limited engagement through June 21, 2020, at American Airlines Theatre on Broadway.