In this Tony Award-winning Best Play, playwright Richard Greenberg celebrates the personal and professional intricacies of America's favorite pastime. When Darren Lemming (Jesse Williams), the star center fielder for the Empires, comes out of the closet, the reception off the field reveals a barrage of long-held unspoken prejudices. Facing some hostile teammates and fraught friendships, Darren is forced to contend with the challenges of being a gay person of color within the confines of a classic American institution. As the Empires struggle to rally toward a championship season, the players and their fans begin to question tradition, their loyalties, and the price of victory.
Scott Ellis' grounded staging spotlights and underlines the conflicting emotional subtexts in Richard Greenberg's profound script, in a production of Take Me Out that is an alternately tense, funny, and heartrending toast to America's favorite pastime.
Greenberg's script remains as sharp and funny as it was 20 years ago, full of both quippy one-liners and wise monologues on the meanings of life and baseball. Ferguson gives an extraordinary performance as Marzac, wracked with awkwardness, thrilled to be star-adjacent, tearing through those philosophical monologues. As narrator-intellectual Kippy, Adams is equally strong, the even-keeled, avuncular center of the plot's chaos. Williams is the production's weak link, playing a cipher but with such cool affect as to drain this allegedly magnetic center-field star of any real charisma.
| 2002 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2003 | Broadway |
Broadway Transfer Broadway |
| 2022 | Broadway |
Second Stage Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
| 2022 | Broadway |
Broadway Return Engagement Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Jesse Tyler Ferguson |
| 2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | Jesse Tyler Ferguson |
| 2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | Jesse Williams |
| 2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Take Me Out |
| 2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Patrick J. Adams |
| 2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Scott Ellis |
| 2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Jesse Tyler Ferguson |
| 2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Michael Oberholtzer |
| 2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Take Me Out |
| 2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Jesse Tyler Ferguson |
| 2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Michael Oberholtzer |
| 2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Jesse Williams |
| 2022 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Take Me Out |
| 2021 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Awards | Patrick J Adams |
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