Downstate, Bruce Norris‘ controversial play about a group home housing convicted sex offenders, will, as expected, get a Broadway staging this fall, and far from shying away from its hot-button subject matter, the production, with Scott Rudin and Barry Diller producing, is leaning into the debate.
The producers confirmed the Broadway staging today – it’s set to begin previews Saturday, October 17, at the Booth Theatre ahead of a Sunday, November 15, opening night – and released a trailer that not only features the usual favorable critics’ quotes but also a notorious slam from right-wing politico Ted Cruz.
Cruz’s quote – “So now the corporate media is praising pedophillia” – was first made on X in the senator’s response to a favorable review given the play by the Washington Post when Downstate was staged Off Broadway in 2022. Another quote in the video comes from New York Post critic Johnny Oleksinski: “How can you miss the play that will thoroughly piss off half of America?”
Downstate, to be directed by Tony winner Joe Mantello, will play a limited 12-week engagement at the Booth Theater. It’s been generating controversy (and overwhelmingly favorable reviews) since its world premiere in 2018, followed by a 2019 UK staging at the National Theatre and the Off Broadway premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2022.
Today’s announcement of the Broadway staging refers to Downstate as “one of the most fearless American plays of the modern era,” and the synopsis suggests why:
“In downstate Illinois, four men convicted of sex crimes against minors live together in a group home, their every movement governed by restrictions that continue to close in around them. The house’s fragile order begins to fracture as an accuser arrives to confront his abuser, bringing with him a storm of unspoken memories. Shockingly funny, savage and furiously political, Bruce Norris’s play pulls audiences into a world where punishment is unending, compassion itself can feel like a transgression, and forgiveness is always out of reach.”
Among the critics’ quotes included with the announcement in a quote from Peter Marks’ WaPo review that so angered Cruz: “Downstate is proof that you can love a play that turns you inside out.”
Also announced today was the cast: The Broadway staging of Downstate will feature Cassie Beck, K. Todd Freeman, Francis Guinan, Adrian Martinez, Al’Jaleel McGhee, Thomas Sadoski, Ivy Wolk and Liza Colón-Zayas.
The production reunites producer Rudin and his frequent collaborator Mantello: The two most recently scored with the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of Salesman, the most Tony Award-winning show of the 2025-2026 season with six wins including Best Revival of a Play and Best Direction of a Play.
The creative team for Downstate will include scenic designer Scott Pask, costume designer Ann Roth, lighting designer Heather Gilbert and sound designer Mikaal Sulaiman.
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