By Mabel Pais

“I’m always supposed to make what I’m not comfortable with” – Young Jean Lee

“Fascinating! A compassionate and stimulating new play written and directed by the ever-audacious Young Jean Lee” –The New York Times

”Young Jean Lee is Transforming Broadway… (she) shakes up Broadway with Straight White Men” – O Magazine

 

ABOUT SECOND STAGE THEATER

Under the artistic direction of Carole Rothman, SECOND STAGE THEATER produces a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America’s best contemporary theater by living American playwrights, including 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazyby Stephen Adly Guirgis; 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normalby Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey;

2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonfulby Quiara Alegria Hudes;among many others.

The company’s more than 130 citations include, over the last 16 years, about 13 Tony Awards in several categories, 20 Lucille Lortel Awards, 30 Obie Awards, 8 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 3 Clarence Derwent Awards, 13 Drama Desk Awards, 9 Theatre World Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards.

SECOND STAGE THEATER ON BROADWAY

Second Stage Theater purchased the historic Helen Hayes Theater, located at 240 W. 44th Street, in 2015 and has enlisted David Rockwell and The Rockwell Group to make renovations and updates to the 104 year old landmark building. The company will continue to lease and operate the McGinn/Cazale Theater on the city’s Upper West Side and The Tony Kiser Theater in Midtown Manhattan.

In addition to Straight White Men, Second Stage Theater’s inaugural Broadway season included the Broadway Premiere of Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero, directed by Trip Cullman and featuring Michael Cera, Chris Evans, Brian Tyree Henry, and Bel Powley, which recently completed its limited engagement run on May 13, 2018.

This inaugural season kicks off Second Stage’s mission of creating and building a permanent home on Broadway dedicated exclusively to American plays and living American playwrights.

Second Stage Theater is investing in its future on Broadway by co-commissioning established playwrights through its STAGE-2-STAGE program, launched with Los Angeles’s Center Theatre Group (CTG). This ongoing program will provide a pathway to Broadway, with each play receiving an initial production in Los Angeles at one of CTG’s three theaters before moving to New York. The commissioned playwrights are Jon Robin Baitz, Lisa D’Amour, Will Eno, Lisa Kron, Young Jean Lee, Lynn Nottage, and Paula Vogel.

Second Stage Theater is also co-commissioning a new work from Bess Wohl for Broadway, through a partnership with the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and new works for Broadway from Lydia R. Diamond and Dominique Morisseau, which will be developed in association with Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theater.

SECOND STAGE THEATER OFF-BROADWAY

Second Stage Theater’s current season at The Tony Kiser Theater includes the New York premiere of Tracy Letts’ Mary Page Marlowe, directed by Lila Neugebauer currently in previews.

In 1999, Second Stage Theater opened The Tony Kiser Theater, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theater, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched “Second Stage Theater Uptown” series to showcase the work of up-and-coming artists at the McGinn/Cazale Theater.

The Theater supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.

For more information, visit www.2ST.com

Second Stage Theater(Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) presents Young Jean Lee’s dark comedy, STRAIGHT WHITE MEN, directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

The production features Kate Bornstein, Josh Charles, Ty Defoe, Armie Hammer, Stephen Payne and Paul Schneider. Ms. Bornstein, Mr. Charles, Mr. Defoe, Mr. Hammer and Mr. Schneider are all making their Broadway debuts with this production.

 The pre-show music is deafening….. deliberately.  It may also be the first time a Broadway audience is greeted with loud, explicit female rap music as they walk to their seats.

Before the play begins, and as soon as the lights dim, a curtain speech is made by two charmingly dressed “persons in charge” — Kate Bornstein who defines herself as a “non-binary” (neither man nor woman) and Ty Defoe, a member of the Oneida and Ojibwe nations who defines himself as “transcending gender.”  They take the stage to apologize for any discomfort the music might have caused.  “Kate and I are well aware that it can be upsetting when people create an environment that doesn’t take your needs into account,” Mr. Defoe says, tongue in cheek.

When the play opens, it’s Christmas Eve, and Ed has gathered his three adult sons to celebrate with matching pajamas, over board games, trash talking, and Chinese takeout. But when a question they can’t answer interrupts their holiday cheer, they are forced to confront their own identities.

Obie Award-winning playwright Young Jean Lee takes a hilariously ruthless look at the classic American father-son drama. This is one white Christmas like you’ve never seen before.

About Young Jean Lee

With STRAIGHT WHITE MEN, playwright Young Jean Lee becomes the first Asian-American female playwright to be produced on Broadway.

Lee has garnered a reputation for creating theatre that is bold, adventurous, and singularly boundary defying. “I’m always supposed to make what I’m not comfortable with,” says Lee.  She cares deeply both about her audience’s experience as well as the challenge of wanting to write impossible plays.

She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Obie Awards, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN Literary Award and a United States Artists Fellowship.

She is currently working on a Broadway commission for Second Stage with Center Theatre Group.

About Anna D. Shapiro

Anna D. Shapiro is making her Second Stage directorial debut with this production. The Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, Ms. Shapiro won the 2008 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards for her direction of August: Osage County (play by Tracy Letts).

In addition, she has several Broadway and Off-Broadway credits. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Columbia College, the recipient of a 1996 Princess Grace Award, as well as the 2010 Princess Grace Statue Award.  Shapiro is the Marjorie Hoffman-Hagan Chair in Theatre at Northwestern University.

STRAIGHT WHITE MEN features scenic design by Todd Rosenthal, costume design by Suttirat Larlarb, lighting design by Donald Holder, sound design by M.L. Dogg, choreography by Faye Driscoll and casting by Telsey + Company.

For more information on the show, package prices, membership rates and for tickets, visit www. 2st.com or Telecharge.com, or call Telecharge at 212-239-6200.

 Location:  Helen Hayes Theater, 240 W. 44th St., Midtown West, 212-239-6200, 2st.com

Genre:      Broadway,Comedy/Drama, Play

Runtime:   1 hr. and 30 min.

Credits:    Written by Young Jean Lee; Directed by Anna D. Shapiro

Cast:         Kate Bornstein, Josh Charles, Ty Defoe, Armie Hammer, Paul

                 Schneider and Stephen Payne

Starts:      June 30, 2018

Closes:      Sept. 9, 2018

(Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Health and Wellness, and Spirituality)