What's old is new again at 'Becky Shaw' on Broadway

Gina Gionfriddo's play is an 18-year-old work, but a bigger-than-ever staging with multiple Broadway first-timers makes it feel as novel as a first date.

Summary

• Becky Shaw is a dark comedy play about a blind date that upends a family when it goes wrong
• The show features Madeline Brewer; Patrick Ball; and Alden Ehrenreich in their Broadway debuts alongside Linda Emond and Lauren Patten
• The play is inspired by the 1847 novel Vanity Fair and premiered off Broadway in 2008 before making its Broadway debut now

Opposites attract, right? When old meets new, sparks fly. That combustible dynamic fuels Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw, a pitch-black comedy starring Madeline Brewer, Patrick Ball, Alden Ehrenreich, and more beginning March 18 at the Hayes Theater.

The show follows “a really dysfunctional family that gets their world turned upside down when this very complicated woman enters into their lives,” said Weapons film star Ehrenreich. It's an 18-year-old story with century-plus-old origins, but its Broadway debut, and those of multiple cast members, makes Becky Shaw feel as novel as a first date.

New York Theatre Guide chatted with cast, author, and director about how old-meets-new vibes relate to the play’s history, starry ensemble, and even audiences at the Hayes.

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An 18-year-old play hits Broadway for the first time

Becky Shaw premiered at the Humana Festival in Louisville, Kentucky in February 2008. Later that year, it made its Off-Broadway debut with Second Stage Theater and went on to become a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Eighteen years later, Second Stage presents the work on Broadway — a first for the play and its author.

“It’s hard to get a play to Broadway,” said Gionfriddo (Rapture, Blister, Burn, Law & Order). “To get a non-famous play to Broadway is really hard. So it’s certainly nothing I ever dared to hope for.”

Gionfriddo was inspired by a 19th-century antiheroine: the cunning social climber Becky Sharp, who sets William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1847 novel Vanity Fair spinning. Gionfriddo reimagined the tale as a contemporary story “about class, love, and the complexities of connecting across socioeconomic differences,” said Ball.

The play has been produced by various regional theatres, but the new production at the Hayes is next-level, Gionfriddo acknowledged. “It’s certainly the biggest stage it’s been on,” she said. “Being on Broadway, obviously, the play has a wider reach. So, that's exciting. There’ll be a more diverse audience than you would get off Broadway.”

Becky Shaw stars Broadway pros and rookies alike

Becky Shaw could be called a complex group portrait — shaded by the good, the bad, and the ugly. Newlyweds Suzanna (Lauren Patten) and Andrew (Ball) fix up his coworker Becky (Brewer) with her brother Max (Ehrenreich). Good intentions curdle and worse for all involved, including Suzanna’s mother, Susan (Linda Emond).

“Each individual audience member will have a different opinion about who was the villain and who was the hero, and about who they empathized with and who they detested,” said director Trip Cullman.

To cast these juicy roles, Cullman (Cult of Love, Choir Boy) assembled a mix of Broadway pros and screen stars. “Audiences will be unbelievably compelled by the performances all five of them are giving,” he said. “You won’t be able to tell who’s a neophyte and who's a veteran at all.”

Returning to Broadway are Emond, a three-time Tony Award nominee (Life x3, Death of a Salesman, Cabaret), and Patten, who won a Tony for the musical Jagged Little Pill. Becky Shaw still has an element of newness for her, though; it's her first Broadway play.

Ball (The Pitt), Brewer (The Handmaid's Tale Emmy nominee), and Ehrenreich are totally new to Broadway and over the moon about being there. “I’m a theatre kid. I’ve been doing plays for a long time,” enthused Ball, who starred in Hamlet on stage last year in Los Angeles. “But I've never made it to the big show.”

He’s in good company. “The other day, we all walked into the theatre for the first time, which was a very special moment,” said Ehrenreich, adding that things he had in his head “for a long time became real.”

Brewer, seen recently as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors off Broadway, echoed that sentiment. “Our first day in the theatre, Lauren was like, ‘You guys get together. You guys take a picture. It’s your Broadway debut,’” said Brewer. “They’ve all acknowledged that and held space for that for us [and the experience]. It’s a lifetime dream.”

Becky Shaw offers a new showcase for familiar stars

TV and film stars on Broadway reliably draw crowds of fans — often first-timers lured by the familiar faces from their screens. Gionfriddo gets that and welcomes fans who come to see, say, Ball out of his hospital scrubs from The Pitt. It’s a whole new window into the actors' talents — just like watching a play on stage versus a show on screen is different.

“The communal experience of sitting beside other people and feeling in their bones how they’re responding is magical,” she said. “It would be great if people who haven’t seen a lot of theatre are experiencing that.”

Emond, who’s been seen on screen in Only Murders in the Building and Succession, observed that theatre is, ultimately, an art form that never gets old — for actors and audience members.

“Theatre has that thrilling aspect to it,” she said. “There’s nothing else like it. It is just completely different than sitting in your living room and watching something on a screen or in a movie theatre.”

Get Becky Shaw tickets now.

Gillian Russo contributed reporting to this story.