LOS ANGELES (November 2, 2021) – Geffen Playhouse added three new productions to complete its 25th Anniversary Season lineup, it was announced today. Playwright Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? will make its Geffen Playhouse premiere in April 2022, featuring Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal, Neil LaBute’s bash) and Zachary Quinto (Star Trek franchise, The Boys in the Band); A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill, a new original musical from playwright and Geffen Playhouse The Writers’ Room program alum Matt Schatz, will make its world premiere in June 2022; and playwright Fernanda Coppel’s King Liz will makes its West Coast premiere in July 2022.
The Geffen Playhouse 25th Anniversary Season launched September 14, 2021, with The Enigmatist and will run through August 14, 2022.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
George and Martha, the American theater’s most notoriously dysfunctional couple, have invited the young and naive Nick and Honey over for drinks. What begins as harmless patter escalates to outright marital warfare, with the provincial newcomers caught in the crossfire. We are thrilled to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the hilarious and harrowing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, arguably Edward Albee’s most famous and most vicious masterpiece.
A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill
On a November night in 1994, a murder was committed in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. In this true-crime story told completely through song, a tight-knit Jewish community gathers to recount, remember, and reckon with the details of what happened in their town and to their town. Written with humor and chutzpah, this wholly original musical asks what it does to our souls when our leaders fall from grace.
A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill was created during the Geffen Playhouse inaugural The Writers’ Room program, in which six Los Angeles playwrights develop new works with the support and guidance of the Geffen Playhouse artistic team.
King Liz
It’s good to be king. Liz Rico is a powerful sports agent who represents NBA superstars, having fought her way to the top of a male-dominated profession with her skill for cutthroat negotiations. Given the chance to sign Freddie Luna, a once-in-a-generation high school talent with a troubled past, Liz sees an opportunity to take her career to the next level. But when accusations start swirling around the young phenom, Liz must attempt to rebound Freddie’s career or protect her own crown.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill and King Liz join the previously announced Geffen Playhouse 25th Anniversary Season lineup of productions that includes the West Coast premiere of The Enigmatist, a highly inventive, immersive theatrical experience from renowned master illusionist and magician David Kwong; the West Coast premiere of playwright Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue; the West Coast premiere of Paul Grellong’s Power of Sail, with Tony Award winner Bryan Cranston (All the Way, Network) leading a cast that also features Hugo Armstrong (Mysterious Circumstances, God of Carnage), Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy, Private Practice), Donna Simone Johnson (Bring Down the House, The Bluest Eye), Tedra Millan (The Wolves, Present Laughter), Seth Numrich (Switzerland, Turn: Washington’s Spies) and Brandon Scott (This is Us, Dead to Me), and helmed by Soulpepper Theatre Artistic Director Weyni Mengesha; the West Coast premiere of playwright Lindsay Joelle’s TRAYF; and Anna Ouyang Moench’s Man of God, originally scheduled for the 2019/2020 season, but cancelled just prior to opening night in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
To launch its 2022/2023 season next year, Geffen Playhouse will present the Stephen Daldry production of playwright Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance, directed by Mike Donahue.
The Geffen Playhouse 25th Anniversary Season is sponsored by Jodi and Howard Tenenbaum.
Geffen Playhouse continues its longstanding relationship with City National Bank (CNB) for its 25th Anniversary Season and is proud to have CNB sponsor Power of Sail in the Gil Cates Theater.
Gil Cates Theater opening nights are sponsored by STK Steakhouse.
GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE 25th ANNIVERSARY SEASON
THE ENIGMATIST (Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater)
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Written & Performed by David Kwong
September 14 – November 28, 2021
Can you solve the enigma? From the creator and performer of the hit virtual production Inside the Box comes an immersive experience of puzzles and cryptology. Following a sold-out New York City run in 2019, renowned magician and The New York Times crossword constructor David Kwong brings his popular in-person show to the Geffen Playhouse. Clues are everywhere, so keep your eyes open and be ready for surprises behind every multi-layered illusion.
PARADISE BLUE (Gil Cates Theater)
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Written by Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Stori Ayers
Featuring Tyla Abercrumbie, Wendell B. Franklin, Alani iLongwe, John Earl Jelks and Shayna Small
November 9 – December 12, 2021
Welcome to the sultry, jazz-filled Paradise Club. It’s 1949 in Detroit, and trumpet-playing club owner Blue has a tough decision to make. Should he sell his jazz joint as gentrification is banging on the door? The house band is desperate to stay, Blue’s demons are tempting him to leave, and the arrival of a seductive stranger turns everything upside down. In Tony Award-nominated playwright Dominique Morisseau’s (Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Skeleton Crew) powerful noir-inspired drama, a makeshift family and their troubled bandleader find themselves fighting for the future of Paradise.
POWER OF SAIL (Gil Cates Theater)
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Written by Paul Grellong
Directed by Weyni Mengesha
Produced with Daryl Roth
Featuring Hugo Armstrong, Amy Brenneman, Bryan Cranston, Donna Simone Johnson, Tedra Millan, Seth Numrich and Brandon Scott
February 1 – March 13, 2022
Distinguished Harvard professor Charles Nichols (Emmy & Tony Award winner Bryan Cranston) finds himself in hot water after inviting an incendiary white nationalist to speak at his annual symposium. His colleagues are concerned, his students are in revolt, but Charles is undeterred in his plot to expose and academically thrash his invited guest. This profoundly relevant new play by Paul Grellong (The Boys, Manuscript) examines the insidiousness of hate disguised as free speech and the question of who ultimately pays the price.
Presenting Sponsor City National Bank.
TRAYF (Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater)
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Written by Lindsay Joelle
Directed by Maggie Burrows
March 1 – April 10, 2022
Zalmy lives a double life. By day, he drives a Chabad “Mitzvah Tank” through 1990s New York City, performing good deeds with his best friend Shmuel. By night, he sneaks out of his orthodox community to roller-skate and listen to rock and roll. But when a curious outsider offers him unfettered access to the secular world, is it worth jeopardizing everything he’s ever known? This road-trip bromance is a funny and heartwarming ode to the turbulence of youth, the universal suspicion that we don’t quite fit in, and the faith and friends that see us through.
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (Gil Cates Theater)
GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE PREMIERE
Written by Edward Albee
Directed by Gordon Greenberg
Featuring Calista Flockhart and Zachary Quinto
Additional casting to be announced.
April 19 – May 22, 2022
George and Martha, the American theater’s most notoriously dysfunctional couple, have invited the young and naive Nick and Honey over for drinks. What begins as harmless patter escalates to outright marital warfare, with the provincial newcomers caught in the crossfire. We are thrilled to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the hilarious and harrowing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, arguably Edward Albee’s most famous and most vicious masterpiece.
MAN OF GOD (Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater)
GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE PREMIERE
Written by Anna Ouyang Moench
Directed by Maggie Burrows
May 10 – June 19, 2022
During a mission trip to Bangkok, the four members of a Korean Christian girls’ youth group discover that their revered pastor has hidden a camera in their hotel bathroom. Samantha is personally wounded that Pastor would do this to her. Jen is worried about how this might affect her college applications. Mimi’s out for blood, as usual. And Kyung-Hwa thinks everyone needs to have lower expectations for men. Their communal rage and disillusionment fuel increasingly violent revenge fantasies amidst the no-holds-barred neon bubblegum sex-tourism mecca of Bangkok. Man of God is a funny feminist thriller about that moment when girls realize the male gaze has been watching all along—and decide they’re definitely gonna do something about it.
Man of God had its world premiere in January 2019 as an East West Players production at the David Henry Hwang Theatre at the Union Center of the Arts in Los Angeles.
A WICKED SOUL IN CHERRY HILL (Gil Cates Theater)
WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL
Words and Music by Matt Schatz
Directed by Mike Donahue
June 21 – July 24, 2022
On a November night in 1994, a murder was committed in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. In this true-crime story told completely through song, a tight-knit Jewish community gathers to recount, remember, and reckon with the details of what happened in their town and to their town. Written with humor and chutzpah, this wholly original musical asks what it does to our souls when our leaders fall from grace.
This play was created during the Geffen Playhouse inaugural The Writers’ Room program, in which six Los Angeles playwrights develop new works with the support and guidance of the Geffen Playhouse artistic team.
Recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Major support for this world premiere production provided by the Edgerton Foundation New Play Production Fund.
KING LIZ (Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater)
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Written by Fernanda Coppel
July 12 – August 14, 2022
It’s good to be king. Liz Rico is a powerful sports agent who represents NBA superstars, having fought her way to the top of a male-dominated profession with her skill for cutthroat negotiations. Given the chance to sign Freddie Luna, a once-in-a-generation high school talent with a troubled past, Liz sees an opportunity to take her career to the next level. But when accusations start swirling around the young phenom, Liz must attempt to rebound Freddie’s career or protect her own crown.
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