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David Auburn Wasn't Planning for a Proof Revival; Then Don Cheadle and Ayo Edebiri Showed Up
The Pulitzer and Tony-winning play is getting a new production at the Booth Theatre.
April 02, 2026 By Diep Tran, Jeffrey Vizcaíno
The first time David Auburn's play Proof ran on Broadway, in 2000, it did better than he could've imagined: It won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. So over the decades, the thought of a revival wasn't something he was gunning for—after all, how would it top that auspicious debut?
"I was always eager to see it again in a Broadway theatre. But I wasn't in a huge hurry. I wanted to wait for the right cast and the right creative team," said the playwright. But then, Golden Globe-winning actors Don Cheadle and Ayo Edebiri expressed interest in doing the play. "When we saw the play read for the first time with this company, which was about nine months ago, a year ago, it was immediately clear that this was it."
Above, in an interview with Playbill's Jeffrey Vizcaíno, the team behind this new revival discuss why they're bringing the play back, and what new resonances they're finding in it now that it's about a Black mathematician and his daughter.
Says Cheadle: "I think it's the story about a young woman who is in the middle of a complicated family and a genius father, who is trying to find her own voice and who she is and what legacy means, and how she can come out of all of it alive."
Chimes in Edebiri: "There are some laughs along the way," though she adds there may be some "discomfort" in those laughs. Proof opens April 16 and is in a limited run through July 19.
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