Halfway Home, Bruce Norris's Downstate Begins Previews at the Booth

The title went up on the Booth Theatre marquee in August. On Saturday, the people it has been teasing get to walk in.

*Downstate* begins previews at the Booth, 222 West 45th Street, on October 17, according to the Shubert Organization's announcement. Opening night is Sunday, November 15. The run is a limited 12 weeks.

Bruce Norris's play is set in a group home in downstate Illinois. Four men convicted of sex crimes against minors live there under rules that keep tightening. Then an accuser arrives to confront his abuser.

It is not an easy night out. It was never meant to be.

The producers say as much themselves. Their announcement notes that the play has set off fierce debate since its 2018 premiere. Five days out, that debate is about to get a Broadway address.

Eight Years to West 45th Street

Norris won the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony for *Clybourne Park*. He has been carrying this play for eight years. It had its world premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf in 2018. It played London's National Theatre in 2019 and Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons in 2022, as Playbill notes.

The Off-Broadway run won the Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding new Off-Broadway play in 2023. It also drew a fight.

Playbill reports that Texas Senator Ted Cruz accused Washington Post critic Peter Marks of "normalizing" pedophilia after Marks praised the show. The attacks led Marks to make his Twitter account private. Playbill adds that neither Marks nor Norris condones what the characters did.

At Exeunt, Cameron Kelsall reviewed that production and called Norris a "brilliant button-pusher." Kelsall wrote that the playwright gives the abusers the kind of full, human detail usually kept for their victims. He also wrote that the play sets out to make an audience uncomfortable, and that Norris is not interested in black-and-white condemnation.

The producers' announcement quotes Jesse Green of The New York Times, whose review was a Critic's Pick.

"A great, squirmy moral-thrill-ride of a play."

That is Green's line, as reproduced in the release. It is a producer's choice of blurb, so read it as one.

Who Is in the House

Joe Mantello directs a new staging. The release credits him with a Tony-winning revival of *Death of a Salesman* that took six Tonys, including Best Revival of a Play and Best Direction of a Play.

Two men from the earlier runs return. K. Todd Freeman and Francis Guinan play roles they have played before, per Playbill. Freeman is a Tony nominee, and his bio in the release lists Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and Obie Awards for the Playwrights Horizons run. Guinan has been in the Steppenwolf ensemble since 1979 and was in *August: Osage County* on Broadway.

Liza Colón-Zayas joins them. She won an Emmy for playing Tina Marrero on *The Bear*, which the release says made her the first Latina to take the prize in that category.

Thomas Sadoski, a Tony nominee for *reasons to be pretty*, is in the company too. So are Cassie Beck, Adrian Martinez, Al'Jaleel McGhee and Ivy Wolk. Beck is reuniting with Mantello after *The Humans*, whose cast received the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble, according to her bio in the release.

The design team is Scott Pask on sets, Ann Roth on costumes, Heather Gilbert on lighting and Mikaal Sulaiman on sound. Roth has designed more than 100 Broadway shows, per the release. Scott Rudin and Barry Diller are the producers.

What to Know Before You Go

Previews start Saturday, October 17, at the Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street. The show opens November 15. Tickets went on sale September 10, and Playbill points buyers to DownstateOnBroadway.com.

The play deals with the sexual abuse of children. Kelsall's review describes graphic accounts of it. Go knowing that.

There is one more wrinkle at the box office. Playbill reports that *Downstate* ticket buyers get a single-use code for early access to select seats at *Small Mouth Sounds*. That play stars Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd and is listed to begin previews February 18, 2027, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

For another hard-edged play arriving on Broadway this fall, see our story on A Few Good Men at Lincoln Center.

It took eight years to get from downstate Illinois to West 45th Street. Saturday, the house opens its doors.