Message from the Artistic Director on TOO MUCH, TOO MUCH, TOO MANY

The new play Too Much, Too Much, Too Many begins previews October 25 at Roundabout Underground's Black Box Theatre.

The play's poetic title sets exactly the right tone for the evening. Playwright Meghan Kennedy has scripted a piece that is all about the importance of the words we choose, the significance of the silences between them, and the wrenching secrets that those silences may contain. Though young in years, Meghan writes with a beautiful emotional maturity that will have you hanging on each syllable that her characters utter and longing to see happiness enter the lives of these damaged souls.

As we meet these characters, they are in varying states of attempting to move on from tragedy, but the play refuses to rest solely in the darkness of their grief. They act as any of us would, facing misfortune with a combination of humor, stubbornness, fear, and, above all, love. These qualities make Meghan's characters feel incredibly real, emerging in such detail that it's hard to imagine them not existing before Meghan committed them to the page. She writes disparate generations with an empathy far beyond what her own years should dictate, and she does so in a way that delivers both a punch to the gut and a jolt to the heart. It's a powerful, surprising, and sensitive play that I'm proud to be introducing you to.

I started Roundabout Underground to give a home to talented emerging playwrights, and I know that Too Much, Too Much, Too Many and Meghan Kennedy are worthy additions to the line they are now a part of. As we enter the seventh season of this program, I can't help but marvel at the ever-growing list of playwrights, directors, actors, and designers who have found a home in the Black Box Theatre and then been launched into hugely successful careers. From a Pulitzer finalist to a pair Tony-winners, to more Broadway debuts than I can count, it's been hugely gratifying to watch these artists attain such success. I'm particularly proud that last fall's Underground selection, Joshua Harmon's Bad Jews, is the first to transfer to a larger space within Roundabout, and you can currently catch that play with its complete original cast right above the Underground in the Laura Pels Theatre.

I hope that you enjoy Too Much, Too Much, Too Many, and I am eager to hear your thoughts on this world premiere play. Please email me at artisticoffice@roundabouttheatre.org to share your response to this work.

I look forward to seeing you at the theatre!

Todd Haimes
Artistic Director

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