ENGLISH Previews

The new play English, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for drama, kicks off Broadway’s 2025 slate tomorrow night (January 3) at the Todd Haimes Theatre before a January 23 opening. Following a 2022 world premiere at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company, the entire cast from that production — Tala Ashe, Ava Lalezarzadeh, Pooya Mohseni, Marjan Neshat, and Hadi Tabbal — has made the transfer to the Main Stem. English is written by Sanaz Toossi and directed by Knud Adams; the Broadway run concludes on March 2.

“The comedy unfolds in an Iranian classroom where adult English learners practice for their proficiency exam. As they leapfrog through a linguistic playground, their wildly different dreams, frustrations, and secrets come to light. Can they overcome the limits of language to discover what they really want to say?”

Who’s paying a visit to the classroom?

This is easily one of my favorite plays in the last few years, and this company is excellent. Not to be missed.

DL40

VernonGersch said: "any discount codes?"

I saw this last night and loved everything about it! I found it to be a beautiful slice of life piece that was excellently written and performed. The humor came very naturally. It's easy to get cheap laughs out of things lost in translation, but the writing brought something fresh to that concept without feeling crass, and threw in some fun cultural references. I even marveled at the lighting and liked the transition music (reminds me of Ravel's piano work). The final scene was exquisite.

Saw this the other day and it’s absolutely extraordinary. The writing is absolutely masterful—it’s like nothing happens but the world moves, and so much that is said is left unsaid. I’m always amazed by this kind of playwrighting—that someone can see the world through such sensitive eyes. Can’t believe Sanaz Toossi is only 33–she must have been barely 30 when writing this but her writing has the emotional wisdom of someone decades older.



The cast is uniformly excellent but I do think Tala Ashe and Marjan Neshat stand out. I feel like performances like this are my favorites—they can make the audience laugh or cry just with a subtle breathe or move of the hand. Just deeply dropped in performances. I hope they are remembered come Tony time in spite of being “quieter” performances than are usually recognized

Updated On: 1/15/25 at 05:45 PM

I liked this quite a bit and I loved the simple yet beautiful set and lighting design. I also have to once again shoutout this theatre for its fabulously comfortable seats. It was a lovely night at the theatre.

I saw English when it played at the Goodman in Chicago a few months ago, and I really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it for the material alone.

As to the ending, I was more affected by my reaction to it than the actual moment, if that makes sense.

Exceptional. The writing, the performances - the layers of each character - just wonderful. Someone mentioned in an earlier post that they found the set simple (something along those lines) and I did not at all...My singular note would be the classroom desks a few times hide a clear view of the actors but was not a major issue.

Interesting that the two most recent shows I have seen ENGLISH and EUREKA DAY are both set in classrooms....

It is. But seeing how it started the usual 7-8 mins after scheduled time, plan on getting out an hour and fifty mins after the start time.

Saw it today and found it very moving. As an English language learner myself, one of the character's arc resonated a lot with the feeling I have of not being "fluent" enough being conflated with not being "good" enough. The way the writing introduces the concept of having an accent that will stay with you forever (and the way this concept is fully realized by the end of the play) was also exceptional.