Katie Finneran, Will Pullen and More to Star in THE RECEPTIONIST at Second Stage Theater

Second Stage Theater has revealed the complete cast for its upcoming production of Adam Bock’s dark comedy, The Receptionist, directed by Sarah Benson.

The company will feature two-time Tony Award winner Katie Finneran (2ST’s The Thanksgiving Play, Noises Off, Promises, Promises), Mallori Johnson (Hulu’s Kindred, Aleshea Harris’ feature film Is God Is), Nael Nacer (2ST’s Meet the Cartozians, Prayer for the French Republic), and Will Pullen (To Kill a Mockingbird, Apple TV’s Dope Thief).

The Receptionist will begin previews Wednesday, April 15, and will officially open on Thursday, May 7, on the Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center.

With this production, playwright Adam Bock returns to Second Stage Theater, which produced his 2005 breakout play, Swimming in the Shallows, in the company’s Uptown Series. The Receptionist will be Sarah Benson’s first Second Stage production.

It’s business as usual at the Northeast Office, where the cheerfully dutiful receptionist (Katie Finneran) answers phones, brews coffee, and gossips with co-workers. But when an unexpected visitor from the Central Office (Will Pullen) walks through the door, business becomes far from usual. The Receptionist is a jet-black comedy about bureaucracy and complicity that’s biting in its humor and chilling in its relevance.

The Receptionist will feature scenic design by dots, costume design by Enver Chakartash, lighting design by Stacey Derosier, and sound design by Bray Poor. Casting is by Daniel Swee, CSA.

KATIE FINNERAN

(Beverly Wilkins) is an acclaimed actress who has twice won the prestigious Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for her breakout performances on stage. She won her first Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play for the Broadway revival of Noises Off and received her second Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the revival of Promises, Promises. Her other Broadway performances include revivals of Annie, The Iceman Cometh, Cabaret, The Heiress, In The Summer House, On Borrowed Time, and It's Only a Play, as well as the original productions of The Thanksgiving Play, Mauritius, Proposals, My Favorite Year, and Two Shakespearean Actors. Off-Broadway appearances include At Home at the Zoo, A Fair Country, You Never Can Tell, Arms and the Man, Bosoms and Neglect, Pig Farm. Katie was most recently seen on television in Hulu's Up Here, Disney+’s Secret Invasion and HBO's The Gilded Age. Her previous television appearances include Paramount+'s Why Women Kill, IFC's Brockmire, Hulu’s The Looming Tower, and Netflix’s Bloodline, as well as Murphy Brown, The Michael J. Fox Show, I Hate My Teenage Daughter, Wonderfalls, Sex and the City, OZ, and Frasier.  She has appeared in the films Welcome to the Fishbowl, Freaky, Night of the Living Dead, You’ve Got Mail, Liberty Heights, Miss Congeniality 2, Bewitched, Broken Bridges, and opposite Neil Patrick Harris and Patti LuPone in the filmed version of Stephen Sondheim's Company with the New York Philharmonic. Katie made her directing debut for Apple TV+ with Easy Money: The Charles Ponzi Story, a multi-part scripted podcast starring Sebastian Maniscalco.

MALLORI JOHNSON

(Lorraine Taylor) will be seen in the upcoming Amazon MGM/Orion feature, Is God Is, written and directed by Aleshea Harris based on her critically acclaimed play. Along with Kara Young, she leads an all-star cast, including Sterling K. Brown, Janelle Monae, Vivica A. Fox, Mykelti Williamson, and Erika Alexander. The film will be released on May 15, 2026. She recurs opposite Rachel Weisz in the upcoming Netflix Series, Vladimir, set to debut on March 5, 2026. She premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival as the lead, with Angourie Rice, in the acclaimed Filmmaker Clement Virgo’s feature, Steal Away. Mallori was the lead of the FX Series Kindred, a role she landed after graduating from The Juilliard School. The series is based on the seminal novel by Octavia E. Butler and was adapted by creator/showrunner Branden Jacob-Jenkins. Janicza Bravo directed the series’ pilot and Darren Aronofsky, Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg served as executive producers. Her other credits include the Hulu Series Genius: MLK/X, as Malcolm X’s former love interest; the Apple+ Series WeCrashed, opposite Anne Hathaway; the feature film, and The Other Zoey, with Josephine Langford and Drew Starkey. On Stage, she co-starred in the Roundabout’s acclaimed The Refuge Plays written by Nathan Alan Davis and directed by Patricia McGregor.

NAEL NACER

(Edward Raymond) recently appeared in Second Stage Theater’s acclaimed world premiere production of Talene Monahon’s Meet the Cartozians. Broadway: Prayer for the French Republic (MTC). Off-Broadway: The Orchard (BAC/Arlekin). Regional: Leopoldstadt (STC); Triumph of Love, A Doll’s House, Bedroom Farce, Come Back, Little Sheba, Our Town (The Huntington); The Moderate, Mrs. Warren's Profession (Central Square Theater); Angels in America (Bedlam/CST); Winter's Tale, Macbeth, The Tempest (Comm Shakes); People, Places & Things, Small Mouth Sounds (SpeakEasy Stage); The Merchant of Venice (Actors' Shakespeare Project); The Ding Dongs (Kitchen Theatre); Tiny Beautiful Things, The Flick (Gloucester Stage); Intimate Apparel, Mr. Burns: a post-electric play (Lyric Stage); A Number, Lungs, The Kite Runner (New Rep); Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse). Awards: Elliot Norton, IRNE. Resident acting company member of Actors’ Shakespeare Project and private monologue coach with My College Audition. www.naelnacer.com Socials: @naelnacer

WILL PULLEN

(Martin Dart) can currently be seen in Ridley Scott and Peter Craig’s Apple limited series Dope Thief, opposite Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura, as well as Angus MacLachlan’s acclaimed feature A Little Prayer, opposite David Strathairn, Celia Weston, and Anna Camp, which premiered at Sundance 2023. He will next reprise his role in the sequel to Aaron Schneider’s feature Greyhound, opposite Tom Hanks, for Apple. Previously he was seen in Nora Fingscheidt's Netflix feature The Unforgivable, opposite Sandra Bullock, as well as in a recurring role in the Peabody Award winning Apple series Dickinson, opposite Hailee Steinfeld. He starred on stage as “Jem” in the Broadway production of To Kill A Mockingbird, adapted by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Bartlett Sher. Additional credits include his Broadway debut in the Pulitzer-prize winning production of Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, directed by Kate Whoriskey, a recurring role in FX’s spy drama The Americans, opposite Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, Andrew Neel’s feature Goat, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and Jenji Kohan’s HBO pilot Devil You Know, directed by Gus Van Sant.

ADAM BOCK

Bock's (Playwright) other plays include Before The Meeting, A Life, A Small Fire, The Drunken City, The Thugs, The Typographer’s Dream, and Swimming in the Shallows – and have been produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, and Second Stage Uptown in NYC; and all over the US, in Canada, Australia and the UK and Argentina. He has received the Obie, the Guggenheim, a NEA, a Clauder Prize, the Bay Area Theatre Critics, Glickman, and Heideman Awards, and been nominated for multiple Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards.

SARAH BENSON

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