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.
If that setup doesn’t exactly sound funny, there’s a reason. Though “Cult of Love,” like many unhappy family reunion plays, draws big buckets of humor from the toxic brew of religion and repression, those buckets also draw blood.
The template of the family reunion drama springs as eternal as the American myths it continues to address. Joining that lineage at the Broadway level is Leslye Headland’s Cult of Love, first performed in 2018 and now making its New York debut at the Hayes Theatre in a starry, captivating production directed by Trip Cullman. With great wit and gently gestured thematic breadth, it tackles the country’s thrall to its righteous, morally dubious origins through the contentious return of a deeply Christian Connecticut household’s offspring on Christmas Eve.
| 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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