Elaine May is on her way to Broadway to co-star in Kenneth Lonergan’s 2001 Pulitzer Prize finalist The Waverly Gallery at the John Golden Theatre. May is slated to co-star with Lucas Hedges and Michael Cera in the show produced by Scott Rudin and directed by Lila Neugebauer .
Preview performances will begin Tuesday, September 25, ahead of an official opening night set for Thursday, October 25, 2018.
This will mark the Broadway debut of Drama Desk and Obie Award winner Lila Neugebauer. May, half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, is a Grammy Award winner and Academy and Golden Globe Award nominee.
Nichols and May’s An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May played the John Golden Theatre, making this a kind of homecoming. Hedges was nominated for an Academy Award. This is Cera’s third Lonergan play.
This production of The Waverly Gallery marks the continuation of a long-standing collaboration between Rudin and Lonergan that includes the play This Is Our Youth and the film Margaret.
Tony Award winner David Zinn is doing scenic design, Tony and Academy Award winner Ann Roth is doing costume design and five-time Tony Award winner Brian MacDevitt is doing lighting design.
The Waverly Gallery is about the final years of a grandmother’s final battle against Alzheimer’s disease. Gladys, an old-school lefty and social activist, is the longtime owner of a small art gallery in Greenwich Village.
“The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson,” according to the production. “More than a memory play, The Waverly Gallery captures the humor and strength of a family in the face of crisis.”
The Waverly Gallery originally premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in August 1999, before opening Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theater in March 2000.