Guide to 'Lost Lear' on Broadway starring Jessica Chastain

Lost Lear follows Joy, a middle-aged former actress with dementia who’s living in an assisted care facility. While her memories including of her son, have mostly faded away, she recalls performing in William Shakespeare's King Lear.

In her version of reality, Joy assumes the role of the ailing monarch, with the people around her the other characters. When her son arrives to confront his mother with things unsaid, he'll have to step into her imagined play, too, to reach her.

Starting March 29, 2027, Lost Lear plays at the Booth Theatre, located at 222 W 45nd St. between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The venue opened in 1913 and was named for actor Edwin Booth, the brother of notorious assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Recent plays and musicals at the theatre include Downstate, Proof, Little Bear Ridge Road, John Proctor Is the Villain, The Roommate, and Kimberly Akimbo.

Previous productions of Lost Lear have run around 80 minutes with no intermission. This article will be updated with the Broadway run time once it is confirmed.

Previous runs of Lost Lear have recommended the show for ages 14+, as the play contains heavy themes surrouding aging, illness, and family dysfunction. This article will be updated with the Broadway age recommendation once confirmed.

Lost Lear plays eight performances a week, with two performances on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There are no performances on Sundays from March to late April, and there are no performances on Sundays or Mondays from late April to June; a Friday 5 p.m. show is added instead.

This schedule is subject to one-off changes. For a complete performance calendar, visit our Lost Lear page.

Lost Lear debuts on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on March 29, 2027. The play arrives in New York following its 2022 world premiere at the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Lost Lear is by Dan Colley, an Irish playwright, filmmaker, actor, and artistic director now making his Broadway debut. His other works include The Maker and an adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.

Lost Lear has a small but mighty cast of characters, all of whom loosely reflect characters in Shakespeare's King Lear.

• Joy: A former actress with dementia who recalls acting in King Lear. Her character mirrors the Shakespeare play's title character.
• Conor: Joy’s estranged son, whom she can’t recall. He represents Cordelia, Lear's estranged daughter.
• Liam: Joy’s caregiver who seeks to connect her preserved past memories with present-day activities. His character is the equivalent to the Fool, Lear's loyal attendant.

The Lost Lear Broadway cast stars Jessica Chastain as Joy; Corey Stoll as Joy's son Conor; and Michael Urie as her nurse Liam.

Chastain is an Oscar winner for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and her Broadway credits include Tony Award-nominated star turns in A Doll’s House in 2023 and The Heiress in 2012.

Urie was recently on Broadway in Oh, Mary! and Once Upon a Mattress, and he's known for TV roles in Ugly Betty and Shrinking (Emmy nomination).

House of Cards Golden Globe nominee Stoll has been seen on Broadway in Appropriate (Tony nomination) and A View from the Bridge.

Lost Lear has won a 2025 Edinburgh Fringe First Award, an honor presented by The Scotsman newspaper for new writing premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Broadway production will be in the running for the 2026-27 season’s upcoming New York honors, including Tony Awards.

Lost Lear has had a number of noteworthy stagings since being workshopped and performed at the Riverbank Arts Centre in Ireland, where writer/director Dan Colley was a resident artist.

• 2022: The play premieres at the Dublin Theatre Festival. Runs at other theatres in Ireland and New Zealand followed between 2022 and 2024.
• February 2025: Lost Lear makes its North American premiere at Villanova University. In the fall, the play toured other U.S. colleges.
• August 2025: The play has its award-winning U.K. premiere at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
• 2027: Lost Year debuts on Broadway, starring Jessica Chastain, at the Booth Theatre.

Learn more about Lost Lear, including its sources of inspiration, a real-life dementia methodology that takes shape on stage, and more.

• Shakespeare’s play was chosen with care. King Lear’s descent into madness exposes the fragility of identity, mind, memory as well as bonds between parents and children, and so does Lost Lear.
• Lost Lear is dedicated to the author’s grandmother, Mary Colley, who lived with dementia in a care center.
• The SPECAL method uses intact memories from a person’s life before dementia and connects them with present-day activities. That idea reverbates in the show.
• Mental acuity was top of mind when Jessica Chastain talked with TODAY about studying for an MPA at Harvard. “I have found that when I’m still and I’ve stopped learning, my brain turns to mashed potatoes,” she said.
• Chastain is 49, Stoll is 50, and they're playing mother and son. It’s a testament to the actors' versatility, and we can't wait to see how it plays out on stage.

Get Lost Lear tickets on New York Theatre Guide. Seeing a trio of seasoned stars and discovering a new writer/director is a royal treat twice over.