Awake and Sing!, Clifford Odets’ landmark 1935 drama, will be revived on Broadway this winter in a Manhattan Theatre Club production starring Tony winner Danny Burstein (Moulin Rouge!, Marjorie Prime), Jessica Hecht (Eureka Day) and Jeremy Shamos (Clybourne Park, Only Murders in the Building).
Produced as part of MTC’s 2026-27 Broadway season, Awake and Sing! will begin previews at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in December ahead of a January 2027 opening night.
The productions was announced today by MTC. Additional casting and creative team members will be announced at a later date.
Directing will be Tyne Rafaeli, who directed this year’s Off Broadway hit Data. The revival is produced by Brian and Dayna Lee, and Nicole Kramer and Stephanie Kramer.
The official synopsis: “It’s the 1930s, and the Bronx is a furnace. New ideas clash with the old amidst the poverty and shattered promises of the Great Depression. And three generations of the Berger family, trapped inside their cramped tenement, struggle to hold different visions of an American dream.”
“Awake and Sing! is one of the great masterpieces of our canon – it makes you laugh and breaks your heart in one fell swoop,” said MTC Artistic Director Nicki Hunter in a statement. “Though Odets wrote this story of a family caught between the life they imagined and the one they were saddled with nearly a century ago, its questions of ambition and sacrifice feel as timely as ever. I’m thrilled to bring the wildly talented Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht, and Jeremy Shamos back to the Friedman stage. With Tyne Rafaeli – who will make her Broadway debut with this production – at the helm, I look forward to sharing the power of this play with our audiences.”
Awake and Sing! originally premiered on Broadway in 1935, produced by the Group Theatre, and helped establish Odets as a major voice in American theater. The play was last produced on Broadway in 2006 in a staging that starred Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Ambrose, Pablo Schreiber, Ben Gazzara and others.
MTC’s previously announced 2026-27 productions include the Broadway premiere of School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Whitney White; the world premiere of Montauk by David Hare starring Laura Linney, directed by Daniel Sullivan; and the American premiere of The Unbelievers by Nick Payne, directed by Knud Adams.
Additional productions for MTC’s 2026-27 season will be announced at a later date.
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