Mother Play
1hr 30min, no intermission
Mother Play - 2024 Broadway History , Info & More
Hayes Theatre (Broadway)
240 West 44th St. New York, NY
Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) has written a bitingly funny and unflinchingly honest new play about the hold our family has over us and the surprises we find when we unpack the past.
It’s 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis (Jessica Lange) is supervising her teenage children, Carl (Jim Parsons) and Martha (Celia Keenan-Bolger), as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe be the child who finds their own path. Bolstered by gin and cigarettes, the family endures — or survives — the changing world around them. Blending flares of imaginative theatricality, surreal farce, and deep tenderness, this beautiful roller coaster ride reveals timeless truths of love, family, and forgiveness.
Mother Play - 2024 - Broadway Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Mother Play
BROADWAY REVIEW: Superb Lange shines in ‘Mother Play’
7 / 10
“Mother Play” has the aura of a valedictorian effort, the completion of a canon by coming home, even a push for a confirmed spot among the greats of this era of American playwriting. Vogel certainly does not shy from her own admiration of Martha. It’s especially apparent in the final scene when she visits and cares for a mother with dementia whom the play has just shown us she has good reason to ignore. Some writers would worry about how that looked, but I suspect Vogel decided that was the truth of it. It’s her mother’s play after all. And who could argue with that?
‘Mother Play’ Broadway Review: Jessica Lange and Jim Parsons Battle for the Soul of a Family
7 / 10
“Mother Play” marks Lange’s fourth engagement on Broadway but the first time she has originated a role there. In its excellence, her work in “Mother Play” recalls what she did on stage as Mary Tyrone in “Long Day’s Journey into Night” in 2016. The only difference is that Vogel gives Lange a few more notes to explore, most of them above the staff in the comic stratosphere. Before this review makes “Mother Play” sound like a dirge, it is really a very funny play. When Martha doesn’t accept Phyllis’ attempt to make amends, Carl cautions, “Don’t gnaw on the olive branch!”
Category
Mother Play History
Other Productions of Mother Play
| 2024 | Broadway |
Second Stage Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Mother Play - 2024 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play | Celia Keenan-Bolger |
| 2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play | Jessica Lange |
| 2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Play | Paula Vogel |
| 2024 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance | Jessica Lange |
| 2024 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance | Jim Parsons |
| 2024 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Play | Mother Play |
| 2024 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play | Celia Keenan-Bolger |
| 2024 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play | Jim Parsons |
| 2024 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play | Jessica Lange |
| 2024 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Paula Vogel |
| 2024 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Jim Parsons |
| 2024 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Celia Keenan-Bolger |
| 2024 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Jessica Lange |
| 2024 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Paula Vogel |
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