Lunar Eclipse
Closing: June 22, 2025Lunar Eclipse - 2025 Off-Broadway History , Info & More
Second Stage - Tony Kiser Theatre
305 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036
Maybe forgetting yourself once in a while is a good thing. From Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends, Collected Stories) comes a stirring new play about the fragility of memory and the passage of time. Late on a summer night, in a field on their Kentucky farm, a long-married couple, George (Birney) and Em (Emery), have come to watch a lunar eclipse. As the seven stages of the celestial phenomenon unfold, the two sip bourbon and reflect on land and legacy, and children and dogs. But as more and more is revealed, they realize they are as much a mystery to each other as the heavens above. Lunar Eclipse is the funny, moving, universal story of a couple reckoning with the time they’ve spent on earth and the time they have left.
Lunar Eclipse - 2025 - Off-Broadway Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Lunar Eclipse
Lunar Eclipse
6 / 10
Despite the unmatched skill of Birney and Emery, who both infuse Margulies’ words and his silences with layers of meaning, the ultimately too-slight “Lunar Eclipse” feels as inconsequential as its titular subject. Just as George is disappointed that the clouds muted his chance to the view the eclipse’s colorful “Japanese Lantern” effect, audiences may leave the theater feeling that the play was also a missed opportunity for something more spectacular.
Lunar Eclipse: A Moving Portrait of a Married Couple in Twilight
8 / 10
Neither the play’s characterizations nor dialogue achieve the complexity of Margulies’ best works, and it all feels a little too neat in its set-up. But despite its schematic elements, Lunar Eclipse proves poignantly moving nonetheless thanks to its dramatic restraint and Kate Whoriskey’s pitch-perfect direction. Birney and Emery, who have long graced our stages, deliver impeccable work, never hitting a wrong emotional note and making us fully empathize with their characters — especially in a heartbreaking coda that depicts them at a very early stage in their relationship, getting together in the same field to witness a blood moon. Their superb work is abetted by the wonderful design elements including Grace McLean’s affecting music, Walt Spangler’s evocative set design, and Amith Chandrashaker’s lighting that gorgeously conveys every stage of that lunar eclipse.
by Chloe Rabinowitz - June 4, 2025
Read the reviews for Lunar Eclipse at Second Stage Theater in BroadwayWorld's Review Roundup. Learn more about the production and see what the critics are saying here!
by Chloe Rabinowitz - April 18, 2025
Second Stage Theater will conclude its 46th Season with the New York Premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies’ LUNAR ECLIPSE. Learn more and see how to attend.
Lunar Eclipse History
Other Productions of Lunar Eclipse
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Theater Production Off-Broadway |
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