The show will play at the Connelly Theatre Off-Broadway for a limited engagement through June 27. Opening night is June 7. Thomas Jay Ryan play Oppenheimer, the physicist who guided research and development of the atom bomb at The Manhattan Project and Los Alamos. Rocco Sisto is Roger Robb, the lawyer who prosecuted Oppenheimer during a 1954 government hearing in which the scientist's loyalties to the U.S. and Communist leanings were questioned. The hearing is the setting of Kipphardt's 1969 drama.
Jonathan Hogan, Keith Reddin, Dan Daily, Steve Routman, DJ Mendel, Wilbur Henry and Matthew Rauch are also part of the all-male cast. Reddin plays Edward Teller, the so-called "father of the hydrogen bomb," whose testimony severely damaged Oppenheimer and shocked the scientific community.
In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer was an early production of Lincoln Center, debuting in 1969, when the nonprofit was under the direction of Jules Irving. Joseph Wiseman played Oppenheimer in the original production, which was directed by Gordon Davidson. Philip Bosco, Herbert Berghof and Charles Cioffi also starred.