The New Group to Present World Premiere of SABBATH'S THEATER Adapted from Philip Roth's Novel by John Turturro & Ariel Levy

Sabbath’s Theater, adapted from the novel by Philip Roth by John Turturro and Ariel Levy, launches The New Group’s 2023-2024 Season, in a world premiere produced by The New Group with Karen Brooks Hopkins.  Directed by Jo Bonney, Sabbath’s Theater will feature Jason Kravits, Elizabeth Marvel and John Turturro.  Performances begin October 10 in advance of Official Opening Night on Thursday, November 2.  A limited Off-Broadway engagement is slated through December 3 at The Pershing Square Signature Center (The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, 480 West 42nd Street).  This production launches The New Group’s 2023-2024 Season, with additional productions for winter and spring 2024 to be announced. 

Priority Booking for Patron Ensemble Members and Season Subscribers begins today.  Season Subscriptions starting at $175 and Patron Ensemble Memberships starting at $250 are currently available at www.thenewgroup.org.  Single Tickets, starting at $67 (inclusive of fees), go on sale Wednesday, July 26 at 1pm EDT on The New Group’s website. 

Philip Roth’s fearlessly filthy, funny and moving novel takes the stage in a new play from John Turturro and Ariel Levy.  When his secret life of debauchery comes to a heartbreaking end, disgraced puppet maker Mickey Sabbath plunges into increasingly mad and maddening encounters with people from his wild and wicked past.  Part ghost story, part love story, Sabbath’s Theater unleashes Roth’s power to shock and amaze in this profound meditation on mortality and juicy celebration of life. 

The complete cast features John Turturro (Severance, The Night Of) as Mickey Sabbath, Elizabeth Marvel(Homeland, House of Cards) as Drenka, with additional roles played by Jason Kravits (The Practice, Off the Top!).  Jo Bonney (Cost of Living) directs. 

This production includes Choreography by Kelly Devine, Scenic and Costume Design by Arnulfo Maldonado, Lighting Design by Jeff Croiter and Sound Design by Mikaal Sulaiman.  The Casting Director is Judy Henderson, CSA.  Production Stage Manager is Valerie A. Peterson.  Assistant Stage Manager is Stephen Michael Varnado.   

Ariel Levy and John Turturro share, "What drew us to adapting the filthiest of Philip Roth’s novels?  Its morality.  Its tenderness.  Its comic intensity.  The deep exploration of our human frailties, our repulsiveness, our vulnerability, our grief, our contradictions and our capacity for love." 

Published in 1995, Sabbath's Theater won that year’s National Book Award and was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize. 

Sabbath’s Theater was originally developed by New Jersey Performing Arts Center for Philip Roth Unbound: Illuminating A Literary Legacy (John Schreiber, President & CEO).  Sabbath's Theater was developed with the support of The National Theatre.   

BIOGRAPHIES:  

Philip Roth was born on March 19, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey.  The second child of second-generation Americans Bess and Herman Roth, Roth grew up in the Jewish community of Weequahic, the neighborhood that would be the setting for many of his books.  After graduating from Weequahic High School in 1950, he went on to Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago, where he received a scholarship to complete his master's degree in English literature.  Roth was the author of thirty-one books; his first, Goodbye, Columbus - a collection of short stories and a novella published in 1959- received the National Book Award.  Ten years later, the publication of his fourth novel, Portnoy’s Complaint, earned Roth both critical and commercial success, which cemented his reputation as one of America's most talented young writers.  Roth received the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral in 1997.  In 1998 he received the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton and in 2011 he received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama.  He twice won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.  He won the PEN/Faulkner Award three times.  In 2005 The Plot Against America received the Society of American Historians’ Prize for “the outstanding historical novel on an American theme for 2003–2004.”  Roth received PEN’s two most prestigious awards: in 2006 the PEN/Nabokov Award and in 2007 the PEN/Bellow Award for achievement in American fiction.  Philip Roth died on May 22, 2018 at the age of eighty-five, six years after he stopped writing. 

Ariel Levy is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Rules Do Not Apply.  She received the National Magazine Award for her work in The New Yorker, where Levy has been a staff writer since 2008.  She is the host and co-creator of the podcast “The Just Enough Family.” 

John Turturro is an actor and director whose film credits include Do the Right Thing; Barton Fink; Quiz Show; The Big Lebowski; The Truce, O Brother, Where Art Thou?.  He has directed six films, including Mac, which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes.  On stage, Turturro won an Obie for Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and appeared in La Puta Vida, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Waiting for Godot, The Cherry Orchard and End Game.  On television, Turturro won an Emmy for his role on Monk and starred in HBO’s The Night Of and The Plot Against America and can be seen currently in Apple’s series Severance. 

Jo Bonney has directed premieres of plays by: Alan Ball, Hilary Bettis, Eric Bogosian, Eleanor Burgess, Hammaad Chaudry, Culture Clash, Eve Ensler, Jessica Goldberg, Isaac Gomez, Danny Hoch, Ione Patricia Lloyd, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Martyna Majok, Lynn Nottage, Dan O'Brien, Dael Orlandersmith, Suzan-Lori Parks,, Darci Picoult, John Pollono, Will Power, David Rabe, Jose Rivera, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Christopher Shinn, Diana Son, Universes, Naomi Wallace, Michael Weller. Productions of plays by: Caryl Churchill, Nilo Cruz, Anna |UnwinDeavere Smith, Charles Fuller, Lisa Loomer, Paul Lucas, Carey Perloff, Lanford Wilson.  Tony Award nomination for Cost of Living, two Obie Awards for Sustained Excellence of Direction, Lucille Lortel Best Musical and Lucille Lortel Best Revival, Drama Desk nomination for Direction of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. Audelco Award for Father Comes Home from the Wars. Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. Alliance and Lilly Award. Editor of Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (TCG).    

The Pershing Square Signature Center is the permanent home of Signature Theatre, is a three-theatre facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature’s three distinct playwrights’ residencies and foster a cultural community.  The Center is a major contribution to New York City’s cultural landscape and provides a venue for cultural organizations that supports and encourages collaboration among artists throughout the space.   In addition to its three intimate theatres, the Center features a studio theatre, rehearsal studio, a bookstore, and the Signature Cafe + Bar, open to the public from noon-midnight Tuesdays –Sundays.  For more information on renting the Center, please visit  www.signaturetheatre.org/rentals. 

The New Group (Scott Elliott, Founding Artistic Director; Adam Bernstein, Executive Director) is an award-winning, artist-driven company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater.  The organization’s New Group/New Works play and musical development program champions original works by emerging and established authors.  The New Group Off Stage celebrates work at the intersection of art, multimedia and social engagement by showcasing some of today’s most compelling storytellers through web series, films, audio plays and more.  The New Group also operates a variety of theater education programs from teen acting ensembles to college access programs, and a college-level acting studio in collaboration with Long Island University-Brooklyn.  On stage in 2023, the company was most recently represented by the world premiere of Bernarda's Daughters by Diane Exavier, directed by Dominique Rider, a co-production with National Black Theatre; and The Seagull/Woodstock, NY, by Thomas Bradshaw, adapted from Chekhov, directed by Scott Elliott.  In Fall 2022, the company produced Will Arbery’s Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, directed by Danya Taymor.  Ahead from The New Group Off Stage is the world premiere of Lypsinka: Toxic Femininity, a new film written and performed by John Epperson, directed by Chloë Sevigny.  www.thenewgroup.org. 

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