Jesse Eisenberg Will Bring New Solo Play, THE ZIEGFELD FILES, to Studio Seaview
Eisenberg will star in seven on-book performances this fall.
By: Nicole Rosky Sep. 18, 2025
Studio Seaview will soon present two-time Oscar-nominated, BAFTA-winning writer and actor Jesse Eisenberg’s The Ziegfeld Files, directed by Pulitzer Prize finalist Shayok Misha Chowdhury, in seven on-book performances (Mondays, October 6, 20, 27, November 3, 17, 24 and December 1 at 7pm). Eisenberg’s new solo play, read by the actor, is presented between performances of Jordan Tannahill’s Prince Faggot.
The Ziegfeld Files is built from therapy recordings of a new father struggling to connect to his baby. He talks about copying machines, early man, breastfeeding classes, failed jokes, sour oranges, and Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture. The result is something funny, uncomfortable, and unexpectedly tender—a portrait of marriage, fatherhood, and the strange performance of trying to say how you feel.
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network and Fleishman Is in Trouble actor and acclaimed theater-maker was most recently praised for his “finely tuned, melancholic and at times startlingly funny” (The New York Times) Oscar-winning film A Real Pain.
“I’m equal parts thrilled and terrified of performing my play, The Ziegfeld Files. I am so grateful to Seaview for producing it and giving me somewhere to go on Mondays!,” said Eisenberg. “I am also very happy that part of the proceeds will be going to organizations providing relief in Haiti—which makes sense when you see the show!"
Chowdhury, whose play Public Obscenities became a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist, is experiencing yet another banner year: first with the Bushwick Starr, HERE Arts Center, and Ma-Yi Theater Company production Rheology (to be reprised at Playwrights Horizons next Spring), a collaboration with his mother Bulbul Chakraborty; with the sold-out, three-times extended production of Prince Faggot at Playwrights Horizons and its already-extended transfer at Studio Seaview; and now, in his collaboration with Eisenberg.
Chowdhury said, “In a culture obsessed with spectacles of feeling (grief posts, confessions, viral apology videos), Jesse is painting us an uncommonly human portrait of a millennial parent struggling to feel correctly. I’ve admired Jesse’s work for years, he’s an exquisite storyteller, and in The Ziegfeld Files, he’s inviting us into a story about ambivalence and doubt. I’m so thrilled audiences will get to experience it at Seaview this fall.”
Seaview and Studio Seaview Co-Founder Greg Nobile said, "Jesse's hilarious, searching writing and acting have made him one of the most exciting multihyphenates of the stage and screen. We're immensely proud to present The Ziegfeld Files at Studio Seaview where audiences can experience Jesse’s words—and singular presence—at close range."
The Ziegfeld Files’ design team is Isabella Byrd (Lighting Designer) and Lee Kinney (Sound) and will be performed on the set for Prince Faggot designed by David Zinn. Production stage manager is Amanda Michaels, with production supervision by Hudson Theatrical Associates and Jonathan Whitton / Seaview serving as general manager.
