Broadway’s CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD (Play)

By Mabel Pais

 Best Revival Of A Play:  Drama League Award Nomination

Lauren Ridloff:    2018 Tony Award Nominee

                            2018 Drama League Award Nominee

                            2018 Outer Critics Circle Award Nominee

                            2018 Theater World Award

Joshua Jackson: 2018 Drama League Award Nominee

“Fierce, crackling, passionate and profound. Lauren Ridloff gives a blistering, knockout debut performance. And, I am awestruck by Joshua Jackson.”

– The New York Times

“Intense, primal, and show-stopping”– New York magazine

“Lauren Ridloff is a silent storm. Luminous and expressive, she needs no spoken words to get across her emotions. Her Sarah is remarkable.”– The Boston Globe

Children of a Lesser God, in 1980, premiered on Broadway and asked: how can we truly communicate? Now, Tony Award®-winning director Kenny Leon (of plays, A Raisin in the Sunand Fences) is laying this question bare in a breathtaking new production of this landmark play starring Joshua Jackson (of the Golden Globe Award-winning television seriesThe Affair, and Dawson’s Creek), Lauren Ridloff (of the Palme D’Or-nominated 2017 film, Wonderstruck), and Anthony Edwards (Emmy Award-nominee for his role in ER,Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the 1998 Golden Globe Award).

Lauren Ridloff and Joshua Jackson
Photo / Matthew Murphy

Playwright Mark Medoff wrote Children of a Lesser God specifically for Phyllis Frelich, a deaf actress who made her professional debut as the character Sarah Norman in the 1979 production at the Mark Taper Forum and went on to play the part on Broadway the following year. The deaf actress Marlee Matlin appeared opposite William Hurt in the 1986 film version.

Medoff received the Tony and Olivier Awards for Children of a Lesser God,was nominated for an Academy Award for the movie of the same title, and received a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Best Adapted Screenplay Award for its film adaptation. His Obie Awards are When You Comin Backand Red Ryder?He is Distinguished Achievement Professor and Artist in Residence, New Mexico State University.

Now, Lauren Ridloff, who starred as Sarah in the Berkshire Theater (Stockbridge, MA) production last year, repeats the role on Broadway, continuing the tradition of deaf actresses who come out of nowhere and sweep us off our feet.  A former Miss Deaf America, Lauren is of African-American and Mexican descent.

Lauren Ridloff has been nominated for the 2018 Tony award in the category: Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play, among Drama League and other nominations.

Lauren Ridloff and Joshua Jackson
Photo / Matthew Murphy

Joshua Jackson, Drama League nominated for his roleplays that speech therapist, James Leeds, who is tutoring Sarah and falls in love with her. But “Sarah has a certain aversion to learning speech,” as the school’s headmaster played by Anthony Edwards (Mr. Franklin) delicately puts it, so human communication — the bedrock of civilization and the language of lovers — becomes a huge challenge for this mismatched couple. James eventually wins Sarah’s heart in a cleverly pleasing way.

Winner of the Tony, Drama Desk, and Olivier Awards for Best Play, when it premiered in 1980, Children of a Lesser God, one of themost indelible love stories of the modern age, brings to life the passionate and personal connectionthe story of an unconventional teacher at a school for the deaf and the remarkable woman he meets there. As their relationship heats up, so does their need for control, igniting a thrilling exploration of passion, intimacy, and connection.

Watching the current production of Children of a Lesser God you immediately become a very active, implicated participant in its study of the relationship of a deaf-from-birthwoman, Sarah Norman (Lauren Ridloff), and her hearing husband, James Leeds (The AffairsJoshua Jackson), a teacher at a State School for the Deaf.

The first-ever Broadway revival of Mark Medoff’s groundbreaking play, Children of a Lesser God, is

lead produced by Hal Luftig, starring film and television favorite Joshua Jackson and breakout star Lauren Ridloff, alongside Emmy Award® winner and Golden Globe Award® winner Anthony Edwards, Drama Desk Award nominee and Obie Award winner Kecia Lewis, Julee Cerda, Treshelle Edmond, and John McGinty.

L to R: Joshua Jackson, Anthony Edwards, and Lauren Ridloff
Photo / Matthew Murphy

The pungency of sign language isa wonderful bonus to the play’s fierce rivalry between those who promote spoken English as the highest attainable form of communication and those who are staunch partisans of silence.

To Sarah, as to many deaf people today, deafness is an identity, not a defect or a curse imposed by a lesser god.

Now, Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon (NPR) invigorates this landmark play with astounding new relevance and a pair of performances that cannot be missed. Jesse Green of The New York Times raves, “Joshua Jackson is a revelation in a tour de force role, and Lauren Ridloff is sensational and explosive.”  Leon received the 2010 Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing by the Drama League of New York.  Prior to co-founding True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of The Alliance Theater.

The creative team for Children of a Lesser Godfeatures Tony Award winner Derek McLane (set design), Dede Ayite (costume design), Tony Award nominee Mike Baldassari (lighting design), Jill BC Du Boff (sound design), two-time Grammy Award ® winner Branford Marsalis (original music), and Alexandria Wailes (director of artistic sign language). Casting for the production is by Telsey + Company.

The producing team is led by Hal Luftig and includes LHC Theatrical Development, Craig Haffner & Sherry Wright, Yasuhiro Kawana, James L. Nederlander, Rodney Rigby, Albert Nocciolino/Independent Presenters Network, Blue Fog Productions, Suzanne L. Niedland, The Shubert Organization, Jhett Tolentino, Steve & Paula Reynolds, Nyle DiMarco, and Roundabout Theatre Company. Tamar Climan serves as executive producer and Sandy Block as associate producer.

The production is the most accessible play in Broadway history with every performance featuring supertitles seamlessly incorporated into the show’s scenic design and closed captioning available through the GalaPro app which is available on Apple or Android devices. Additionally, at select performances of Children of a Lesser God, American Sign Language interpreters are present.

For more information and tickets, please visitchildrenofalessergodbroadway.com.

Tickets can also be purchased at telecharge.com, by calling 212-239- 6200, or at the Studio 54 box office (254 West

54th Street). For groups of 10 or more, contact Broadway Inbound at BroadwayInbound.com or by calling 866-302-0995.

Location:   Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., Midtown West

Category:  Broadway,Comedy/Drama, Play

Runtime:    2 hrs. and 20 min.

Credits:     Written by Mark Medoff; Directed by Kenny Leon

Cast:         Joshua Jackson, Lauren Ridloff, Anthony Edwards, Kecia Lewis, Julee Cerda, Treshelle Edmond and John McGinty

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

Be the first to comment

The Indian Panorama - Best Indian American Newspaper in New York & Dallas - Comments