Tony and Emmy nominee Jessica Hecht (The Assembled Parties, Friends) will star in Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn's new play Summer, 1976. Previews will begin on Broadway April 4, 2023 at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The show will open April 25, 2023.
Hecht joins five-time Tony nominee Laura Linney in the production, which follows the "unlikely friendship" between Diana, an artist and single mom, and Alice, a free-spirited housewife, as the two help each redefine independence. Set in Ohio, the new play is said to explore "motherhood, ambition, and intimacy," according to press notes. Tony winner Daniel Sullivan (who directed Auburn's play Proof) will direct.
The Tony nominee received a nod for her work in A View From the Bridge, and received an Emmy nomination for Netflix's Special. On Broadway, she has starred in The Price, Fiddler on the Roof, The Assembled Parties, Harvey, After The Fall, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Julius Caesar, with several Off-Broadway credits in addition. Hecht will be familiar for her performances onscreen in Friends, Dickinson, The Boys, Succession, Breaking Bad, and more. She is a four-time Emmy winner, and was last seen in Netflix's Ozark.
Linney last appeared on Broadway in My Name is Lucy Burton, which earned her a 2020 Tony nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Play. Past stage credits include The Little Foxes (also directed by Sullivan), Sight Unseen, the 2002 revival of The Crucible, and the 1992 revival of The Seagull.
Summer, 1976 was commissioned by MTC through the Bank of America New Play Program. Manhattan Theatre Club's 2022 Broadway line-up includes Martyna Majok's Cost of Living, which just closed on Broadway; and the transfer of London's The Collaboration by Anthony McCarten, starring Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope. The company's Off-Broadway season includes Where the Mountain Meets the Sea by Jeff Augustin, the world premiere of the best we could (a family tragedy), King James by Rajiv Joseph, and Poor Yella Rednecks by Qui Nguyen.
For more information, visit ManhattanTheatreClub.com
