Clubbed Thumb’s return engagement of Ethan Lipton’s Tumacho, first seen in the 2016 Summerworks season, will begin February 17, 2020, prior to an official opening February 22.
Directed by Tony nominee Leigh Silverman, the limited engagement will continue through March 14 at the Connelly Theater.
The Off-Broadway production will feature members of the original cast, including Bill Buell (Ink), Obie winner and Tony nominee John Ellison Conlee (The Full Monty), Obie winner Randy Danson (Well), and Gibson Frazier (Mr. Burns, a post-electric play), who will be joined by Tony nominees Andy Grotelueschen (Tootsie) and Phillipa Soo (Hamilton, Amélie). Additional casting will be announced later.
In the play, citizens of a frontier outpost are looking for someone to rescue them from the terrors of the local villain. Have they met their salvation—or an even bigger tyrant—when a fiend from the past comes to town?
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“When we first produced this play, in the summer of 2016, the question of whether a hopeless citizenry could overcome their despair and band together to fight their oppressor felt like a metaphor, a general moral query about, you know, being a better person,” stated Producing Artistic Director Maria Striar. “After three long years, we have a very different understanding of the need for communities to come together to resist. We have always loved Tumacho for its invitation to virtuosic comic performance, and for the slyness of its critique. Now it feels like a joyful way to gird our loins for the coming fight. We’ve wanted to revisit the show since our first short run, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be doing that right now.”
Tumacho will feature set design by David Zinn (The Humans), costume design by Anita Yavich (Soft Power) and Devario Simmons (Thoughts of a Colored Man), lighting design by Jennifer Schriever (What the Constitution Means to Me), and prop and puppet design by Raphael Mishler. Shelley Miles will be the production stage manager.
Clubbed Thumb made its Broadway debut last spring with Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me; the play begins a national tour in January 2020.
