Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway production of Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer-winning play English officially opened January 23 at the Todd Haimes Theatre, and the reviews are rolling in. English began previews January 3 for a strictly limited 66-performance engagement through March 2. Knud Adams is directing.
The play unfolds in an Iranian classroom, where adult English learners practice for their proficiency exam. As they leapfrog through a linguistic playground, their wildly different dreams, frustrations, and secrets come to light.
Read the reviews below.
CitiTour NYC (Brian Scott Lipton)
Digital Journal (Markos Papadatos)
New York Daily News (Chris Jones)*
New York Stage Review (Roma Torre, Frank Scheck)
New York Theater (Jonathan Mandell)
New York Theatre Guide (Allison Considine)
The New York Times (Jesse Green)*
TheaterMania (Zachary Stewart)
The Wall Street Journal (Charles Isherwood)*
The Washington Post (Naveen Kumar)*
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Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in.
The full cast of the work's 2022 Off-Broadway world premiere are reprising their work on the Main Stem, including Tala Ashe as Elham, Ava Lalezarzadeh as Goli, Pooya Mohseni as Roya, Marjan Neshat as Marjan, and Hadi Tabbal as Omid.
Understudies for the production include Joe Joseph, Roxanna Hope Radja, and Shadee Vossoughi.
The production marks Toossi and Adams' Broadway debuts, as well as the Broadway debut of the entire cast. English’s world premiere, a co-production between Roundabout Theatre Company and Atlantic Theater Company, was presented Off-Broadway in 2022. In addition to Toossi winning the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the premiere production won the 2023 Obie Award for Best New American Play.
The Broadway creative team includes set designer Marsha Ginsberg, costume designer Enver Chakartash, lighting designer Reza Behjat, and sound designer Sinan Refik Zafar. The production designer is Ruey Horng Sun. The production stage manager is Alex H. Hajjar, and production management is by Aurora Productions. The production's general manager is Denise Cooper. Casting is by Stephen Kopel.
Visit RoundaboutTheatre.org.