Gruesome Playground Injuries Revival
90 Minutes
Gruesome Playground Injuries - 2025 Off-Broadway History , Info & More
Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher St (between Hudson & Bleeker Sts) New York, NY 10014
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries will return to the New York stage in a new production starring three-time Emmy Award nominee Nicholas Braun and two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young, and directed by Tony Award Nominee Neil Pepe. Over the course of 30 years, the lives of Kayleen and Doug intersect at the most bizarre intervals, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together.
Gruesome Playground Injuries - 2025 - Off-Broadway Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Gruesome Playground Injuries
Theater ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’: Kara Young and Nicholas Braun embrace a world of hurt
6 / 10
Still, it can be hard to make sense of the show’s central conceit — that these childhood buddies are only connecting in five-year increments when one or the other is in a moment of crisis — or to glean an overriding message that justifies the time we’re spending in the company of this star-crossed not-quite couple. Gruesome Playground Injuries mostly succeeds as an acting exercise, where the performers can throw themselves (sometimes literally) into showy recklessness.
Gruesome Playground Injuries
7 / 10
Without question, both Young and ‘Succession’ star Nicholas Braun, in a stunning New York theater debut, make a much more persuasive case for the play than the show’s production at Second Stage did back in 2010. But the work still often feels a bit too much like an acting exercise rather than a fully realized drama, despite the pair’s protean efforts (which includes moving around the two beds that are the main feature of Arnulfo Maldonado’s spare set and changing in and out of Sarah Laux’s well-chosen costumes in full view of the audience).
Category
by Bruce Glikas - November 25, 2025
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries is back on the New York stage, and recently celebrated its gala opening for its off-Broadway run. Check out photos from the opening night here!
by Stephi Wild - November 24, 2025
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries is back on the New York stage in a new production starring three-time Emmy Award nominee Nicholas Braun and two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young. Read the reviews here!
by Joey Mervis - November 22, 2025
In this video, watch as two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young walks us through the aisles of the Drama Book Shop to tell us all about the plays that made her the artist she is today. Can you guess which classics she most adores?
by Josh Sharpe - November 6, 2025
Two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young and Succession star Nicholas Braun stopped by TODAY on Thursday to talk about their roles in the off-Broadway revival of the play Gruesome Playground Injuries. Watch the interview now.
by Nicole Rosky - October 20, 2025
Check out photos of Nicholas Braun and Kara Young in the upcoming production of Gruesome Playground Injuries, starting November 7 in NYC.
by Joey Mervis - October 15, 2025
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries will return to the New York stage in a new production starring three-time Emmy Award nominee Nicholas Braun and two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young. Watch in this video as the whole team explains what the play is all about!
by Bruce Glikas - October 14, 2025
Gruesome Playground Injuries will return to the New York stage in a new production starring Nicholas Braun and Kara Young, and directed by Tony Award Nominee Neil Pepe. See photos of the cast meeting the press here!
by Nicole Rosky - September 25, 2025
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries will return to the New York stage in a new production starring three-time Emmy Award nominee Nicholas Braun (“Succession”) and two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young.
Gruesome Playground Injuries History
Other Productions of Gruesome Playground Injuries
| 2011 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Theatre Production Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
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