Eureka Day
Closing: February 16, 2025Eureka Day - 2024 Broadway History , Info & More
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (Broadway)
261 W. 47th St. New York, NY 10036
School is in session! Manhattan Theatre Club brings Jonathan Spector’s play Eureka Day, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, to Broadway.
What's it all about? Eureka Day is a private California elementary school with a Board of Directors that values inclusion above all else – that is, until an outbreak of the mumps forces everyone in the community to reconsider the school’s liberal vaccine policy. As cases rise, the board realizes with horror that they’ve got to do what they swore they never would: make a choice that won’t please absolutely everybody.
Despite its familiar subject matter, Spector has explained that he wrote the play long before the COVID pandemic.
Before Broadway, the comedy had its world premiere at Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, California as part of their 2017-2018 season and was commissioned through their Originate+Generate program. It went on to have its east coast premiere off-Broadway at Walkerspace in 2019, and opened at the Old Vic in London in 2022. It arrives on Broadway with an all new cast.
Eureka Day - 2024 - Broadway Cast
PREVIEW Eureka Day - 2024 - Broadway
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FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Eureka Day
Eureka Day Broadway Review: A vaccine comedy and tragedy
8 / 10
“Eureka Day” begins as a stock satire of the painstakingly earnest progressives at a small private elementary school in Berkeley, California, leading to one of the most hilarious scenes of the year, before it settles into a serious, thought-provoking exploration of an alarmingly relevant issue: vaccines. Indeed, despite the stellar cast and director Anne D. Shapiro’s solid direction, the issue has become so newsworthy that Jonathan Spector’s play lands differently now – less comfortably – than when it was first produced in Berkeley in 2018 (the time and place where the play is still set.) What then might have seemed admirably balanced now seems dangerously so.
In Eureka Day, the Jabs Are Verbal, Too
8 / 10
Hecht and Gray are excellent here and throughout, as is Shapiro’s whole company. They’re not clowning — though there’s a delightful wink of a moment in which Irwin’s Don waxes misty-eyed over the “actually quite subtle” mime work of a former colleague. Rather, they’re performing that crucial aspect of theater, its function as a space of civic practice, quite literally a place where we rehearse the hardest conversations, where we experiment with how to put together a community. In his script’s epigraph, Spector quotes from Eula Bliss’s On Immunity, where Bliss herself cites a doctor who describes a certain vaccine as “important … from a public health standpoint” but “not as critical from an individual point of view.” “In order for this to make sense,” writes Bliss, “one must believe that individuals are not part of the public.” It’s this cognitive dissonance, so widespread and so clamorous and so tragically American, that theater, by its very nature, is always addressing, and in Eureka Day that essential refutation takes on explicit and eloquent form.
by Stephi Wild - February 4, 2025
Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz is appearing in Eureka Day on Broadway. She recently took us backstage to share some of her favorite backstage routines, pre-show rituals, must-haves and more.
by A.A. Cristi - January 14, 2025
The Broadway production of Eureka Day has announced the cancellation of tonight's performance (January 14, 2025) due to non-COVID related illness within the company.
by Chloe Rabinowitz - January 8, 2025
Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, a play by Jonathan Spector, directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro, has extended for the second time. Learn more about the production and see how to purchase tickets.
by A.A. Cristi - December 20, 2024
The 92nd Street Y has announced a performance of Eureka Day and post-performance conversation with the cast – Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz – moderated by Ruthie Fierberg.
by Joey Mervis - December 19, 2024
Stars aligned earlier this week at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, where Eureka Day celebrated its opening night. Watch in this video as the cast and creative team chat more on opening night!
by Stephi Wild - December 18, 2024
Manhattan Theatre Club has announced that the Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, a play by Jonathan Spector, directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro, has extended its run! Learn more here!
by Bruce Glikas - December 18, 2024
Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector, directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro, is now officially open on Broadway. BroadwayWorld was there at opening night and you can check out photos from the red carpet here!
by Bruce Glikas - December 17, 2024
Eureka Day, by Jonathan Spector and directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro, is now officially open on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Check out photos of the cast taking their opening night bows!
by A.A. Cristi - December 16, 2024
The Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, a new comedy from playwright Jonathan Spector, celebrates its opening night tonight in a new production from Anna D. Shapiro! Read the reviews!
by Bruce Glikas - December 16, 2024
Eureka Day, a play by Jonathan Spector, directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro, is now officially open on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Check out photos of the cast on the red carpet here!
by Stephi Wild - December 6, 2024
All new production photos have been released for the Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, a play by Jonathan Spector, directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro. Check out the photos here!
by Jennifer Broski - December 3, 2024
Next up at Manhattan Theatre Club is Eureka Day, by Jonathan Spector, directed by Anna D. Shapiro. Check out new photos of the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre marquee here!
by Stephi Wild - November 25, 2024
Meet the talented cast of Eureka Day on Broadway, featuring Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz.
by Chloe Rabinowitz - November 10, 2024
BroadwayWorld interviewed playwright Jonathan Spector about the Broadway debut of his play Eureka Day, starring Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, and more. Learn more about the play!
by Joey Mervis - November 5, 2024
Up next at Manhattan Theatre Club is Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day, starring Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. Watch as the cast tells us more about the new play in this video.
by Bruce Glikas - October 30, 2024
Manhattan Theatre Club is presenting Eureka Day, by Jonathan Spector, directed by Anna D. Shapiro. See photos of the company meeting the press here!
by Stephi Wild - October 2, 2024
Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz (“Scandal,” “The Flash”) will make her Broadway debut in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Eureka Day, by Jonathan Spector, directed by Anna D. Shapiro.
by Chloe Rabinowitz - June 18, 2024
The full cast has been revealed for the Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, written by Jonathan Spector and directed by Anna D. Shapiro. See who is starring and learn how to purchase tickets.
Eureka Day History
Other Productions of Eureka Day
| 2024 | Broadway |
MTC Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Eureka Day - 2024 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | Amber Gray |
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | OUTSTANDING DIRECTION OF A PLAY | Anna D. Shapiro |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Jessica Hecht |
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