The holidays aren't over yet at the Hayes Theatre. Playwright Leslye Headland makes her Broadway debut with Cult of Love, directed by Trip Cullman and presented by Second Stage Theatre.
What's it all about? It’s the holiday season for the Dahl family! The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious.
Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. Will the love the Dahls have for each other be enough to get them through, or will this be their last Christmas together?
Before Broadway, the family dramedy premiered at the IAMA Theatre in Los Angeles as part of their 10th Anniversary season in 2018. It went on to play at the Williamstown Theatre Festival as an audio production, which was presented by Audible. A later version was presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre is 2024, directed by Cullman.
The star-studded Broadway cast includes: Shailene Woodley, Zachary Quinto, Barbie Ferreira, Christopher Lowell, Mare Winninham, David Rasche, Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Rebecca Henderson and Christopher Sears.
The play doesn’t want to end sourly; at beginning and end it returns to the uniting power of song—the family’s warring members brought together by music. The unity is nice to see, but after all we have seen it also rings false. As formulaic as some of the issues in the play feel (addiction, faith, prejudice, acceptance), the performers are so good—and Cullman such a great conjuror-of-activity as a director—it would be more effective for Cult of Love to stay true to its best, most uncompromising scenes, and deliver an unhappy ending.
Cult of Love is at least in part about how deeply family ties can become embedded in our identities, even if it happens against our will, and/or outstays its welcome – hence the cult comparison, never over-explicated in the text of the play itself, but a brilliant running metaphor that echoes after the final curtain. Headland’s work as a playwright reflects her broader interest in the social components of religion; this play is the final entry in her Seven Deadly Sins cycle, each work addressing (if sometimes obliquely) a particular transgression. As such, she finds herself in an awkward position: Cult of Love is designated to represent the sin of pride, yet it’s a work to be proud of, nonetheless.
| 2024 | Broadway |
Second Stage Theatre Broadway Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Play | Trip Cullman |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play | Mare Winningham |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Cult of Love |
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