Deirdre O'Connell, 2022 Tony winner for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her performance in Dana H., stars in Sarah Ruhl's Becky Nurse of Salem for Lincoln Center Theater beginning November 8 at Off-Broadway's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.
Directed by Tony winner Rebecca Taichman (Indecent), performances had been scheduled to start October 27 but were delayed due to COVID detection in the company that caused delays in the rehearsal process. Opening night is scheduled for December 4.
O'Connell is joined by Tina Benko, Candy Buckley, Alicia Crowder, Thomas Jay Ryan, Julian Sanchez, and Bernard White.
The dark contemporary comedy follows Becky (O’Connell), a modern-day descendent of accused witch Rebecca Nurse. Becky, who works at the local Salem witch museum, seems to be dogged by bad luck as she looks for love and redemption through spells, pills, and a bartender named Bob (White).
Becky Nurse of Salem has sets by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Emily Rebholz, lighting by Barbara Samuels, sound by Palmer Hefferan, and projections by Tal Yarden. Suzzy Roche is the composer, and Caroline Englander is the stage manager.
Ruhl is also the playwright of How to Transcend a Happy Marriage; The Oldest Boy; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday; Stage Kiss; Dear Elizabeth; Passion Play, a cycle; Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song.
