ENGLISH Previews

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 1/2/25 at 12:00am

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?

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 1/3/25 at 12:52pm

$43 digital rush tickets are now available through TodayTix. 

Running time is 100 minutes and no intermission, per Roundabout 

Updated On: 1/3/25 at 12:52 PM

[suzycat]

Posted: 1/3/25 at 5:29pm

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

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 1/3/25 at 10:47pm

Anyone go tonight?

[Art Isn’t Easy]

Posted: 1/4/25 at 10:57am

Long, LONG time lurker, first time poster here. Was at the first preview last night and it was a truly special evening - Sanaz Toosi and Knud Adams made a speech at the end with the entire cast and creative team, all of whom are making their Broadway debuts!

 
The play is in beautiful shape. Given the entire cast transferring one would expect (and hope) that the performances are in show-ready shape but every actor is giving an even deeper and richer performance than at the Atlantic. The show fits the space beautifully, it’s still laugh out loud funny, and the moment of connection at the end (which I won’t dare spoil) led to audible crying/sniffling from the entire theatre. It’s a remarkable play, maybe the finest play of the 2020’s. I cannot recommend seeing it enough.

and in case you’re worried I’m a shill for Roundabout, I was back here in the days when WizzerMarvin would supply first preview reports lol. 

Updated On: 1/4/25 at 10:57 AM

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 1/9/25 at 3:01pm

any discount codes?

[yyys]

Posted: 1/9/25 at 3:38pm

DL40

VernonGersch said: "any discount codes?"

 

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 2:07am

How would first row Mezz be for this show?   How would front row Orchestra be?  Any seating feedback welcome. 

[ardiem]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 3:56pm

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.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 4:01pm

Yes, I thought this was a brilliant and lovely play. And I agree with you about the final scene, it was incredible. Enjoy this beautiful piece of theater, guys. 

 

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 1/15/25 at 5:45pm

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

[quizking101]

Posted: 1/15/25 at 6:27pm

This is one of those rare gems that may be largely overlooked by the public and the public is worse off for it.

I was there this afternoon and it was one of the most beautiful plays I have seen in quite some time. Every performance melds together perfectly in an ensemble while each individual is able to carve out their own uniqueness within the ensemble work. I also thought it was a genius writing/directorial choice to have the cast speak perfect English that serves as a stand in for Farsi, and then use broken English when they get to the parts where they are “learning”.

Additionally, I love how it was able to so eloquently address the themes of assimilation as a precursor to success, and what they ultimately have to compromise or give up in order to gain that assimilationist skill. As English speakers, we often don’t question our privilege of being a dominant language in the world, and this play forces us to look through that lens.

Personally, I’m white, but also I’m (mostly) bilingual since my grandmother is from Puerto Rico and I spent a lot of my childhood in school studying Spanish. My grandmother came to the mainland U.S in 1952 with only a 5th grade education and spent most of her life with some level of struggle between two languages. (She’s still alive and kicking at age 89, so I think she did good for herself).

 I’m not perfect, but I’m pretty proficient for getting around predominantly Spanish countries and use it at work. The one phrase that really resonated with my experience was “When you speak another language, you always sound loud and all you can hear are the worst parts.” and that has always felt like my experience.

It won the Pulitzer Prize for a reason. Get a ticket and go learn something about yourself 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/15/25 at 10:50pm

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.

[InTheBathroom1]

Posted: 1/18/25 at 11:34am

I just found this to be absolutely incredible.  Everyone working on this is firing on all cylinders to create this very special evening of theatre.  I laughed, I cried, I gasped.  I truly believe this is one of the best plays of the decade.  The writing is so incisive and interesting.  There’s humor, longing, love, anger, and so much more baked into the language of this piece.  And the cast takes on this challenge with such abandon.  It is truly remarkable to behold.

We talk a lot about the “coup de theatre” on this board, and I think the last two minutes of this show features one of the best I’ve seen in recent years.  It only makes sense that a play called English would create a coup de theatre with language.

Please go see this.  You will not regret it.

[ChiDoc]

Posted: 1/18/25 at 12:45pm

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. 

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

I like to know everything that's being said in anything I'm watching; for example, I watch movies with subtitles so I don't miss a line.  So as soon as the play ended I took a look at a copy of the text from the gift store so that I could see the translation of what was said.  I didn't think much about it until my boyfriend told me a story from a Q&A with the creative team of the production.  An older patron asked what was said in the last two minutes, and the response was that they wouldn't answer the question and "how did it make you feel that you don't understand?"  The questioner and I were so focused on bridging the language barrier that we didn't stop to think about how that was the whole point, that language can be such a barrier and we take so much for granted that we can so easily translate.  It was a wild thing to be hit by an ending so many days after seeing it!

 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 11:18pm

This is as perfect a play as I could ever want to see. Five stars, zero notes. 

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 1/22/25 at 6:37pm

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....

[Voter]

Posted: 1/22/25 at 10:01pm

Jordan Catalano said: "This is as perfect a play as I could ever want to see. Five stars, zero notes."

 

Is the runtime actually 1 hour and 40 minutes?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/22/25 at 10:07pm

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. 

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 1/22/25 at 10:57pm

VernonGersch said: "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...."

John Proctor is the Villain is going to also almost entirely take place in a classrom. The year of classroom plays I guess!

 

[ViniFromBrazil]

Posted: 1/31/25 at 12:33am

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.