Following an acclaimed, sold-out, and extended Off-Broadway run earlier this summer, Mike Birbiglia’s newest show The New One will transfer to Broadway this fall. The show will play a limited engagement at the Cort Theatre beginning October 25 ahead of a November 11 opening.
Mike Birbiglia: The New One is scheduled to run through January 20, 2019. The show features additional writing by Jennifer Hope Stein and is directed by Seth Barrish. Birbiglia has remained deliberately secretive about the details of The New One, his reasoning being that the show should be discovered in the theatre.
"The truth is I try not to tell people anything about my new show because, I find, the less you know about the show the more you will enjoy it. My goal is to make as many people laugh as possible and ideally several hundred will cry," says Birbiglia. "My producer Kevin McCollum and the Shubert Organization are letting me do that in a space that will accommodate the right amount of people. Which is about 1,100. I’m pretty sure there are union regulations about entertaining more than 1,100 people at once. So we will limit it to 1,100 people laughing and 300 people crying. A lot of people thank their spouses when they make something but with this show I really do have to thank my wife, Jennifer Hope Stein, because she wrote a lot of the best lines. She’s a writer on the show and that was important to me because I wanted to convey the truth about what we experienced together—which I will tell you nothing more about.”
The New One debuted at the Cherry Lane Theatre July 26, where it officially opened August 2. The Broadway production will feature set design by Beowulf Boritt, lighting design by Aaron Copp, and sound design by Leon Rothenberg.
Mike Birbiglia’s The New One will be produced on Broadway by McCollum (Rent, Avenue Q, In The Heights). This American Life’s Ira Glass is executive producer, Joe Birbiglia is associate producer, and Mike Lavoie serves as production consultant.
Birbiglia's recent shows include My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend and Thank God for Jokes, which were both filmed for Netflix. In addition to performing live, Birbiglia is an author and filmmaker who wrote, directed, and starred in the films Sleepwalk with Me and Don’t Think Twice.
