Matthew Broderick & David Cross to co-star off-Broadway in new TARTUFFE written by Lucas Hnath

This cast is overflowing with talent but after seeing him be immensely bland in some plays as of late I don’t think I need to see Matthew Broderick again.

raddersons said: "This cast is overflowing with talentbut after seeing him be immensely blandin some plays as of late I don’t think I need to see Matthew Broderick again."



Well I'm sure they'll do just fine without your support -- but thanks for chiming in.

JSquared2 said: "raddersons said: "This cast is overflowing with talentbut after seeing him be immensely blandin some plays as of late I don’t think I need to see Matthew Broderick again."



Well I'm sure they'll do just fine without your support -- but thanks for chiming in."

You’re right, we shouldn't be discussing theatre on a theatre message board. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Updated On: 6/16/25 at 02:35 PM

I wish they had done the original Moliere in the still-vital Wilbur translation and I think Broderick would be a better Orgon than Tartuffe. However, his work off-Broadway has bested his recent work on Broadway by several yards so...this could be good!

I've never seen Broderick be anything but a vacuum of charisma onstage. The rest of the cast is incredible and hopefully the production can counterbalance him.

Cross seems like much better casting for Tartuffe, honestly.

Has anyone seen this yet? Have tix for Friday and I'm looking forward.

I saw the second preview of this and thought it was a fun time. David Cross was notably having a tough time with his lines and had to call for one, but I thought the entire cast was phenomenal outside of that and the audience seemed to be eating it up. Ikechukwu Ufomadu and Amber Gray were my favorites (but I am an unapologetically biased Amber Gray fan).

This WAS one of the all-$29 early previews though, hopefully David has his lines down now that he's performing for people who paid $100 more than that.

I went last night on one of the very limited $23 TDF seats they had in an early sale.

I’ll start simply - André de Shields’ recent Tartuffe blows this one out of the water by a country mile. That production was high concept, campy, and well-performed. This, comparatively, felt like an overlong SNL-style facsimile that, while I laughed quite a few times, ultimately did not amount to a satisfying whole. Hnath tries to add modern profanity and parlance into the piece, but it doesn’t really do anything meaningful, Raja Feather Kelly’s choreo seemed completely unnecessary, and Sarah Benson’s direction seemed like she just took her hands off the wheel and let the car drive itself. The set is a single dining room but is also somehow a tennis court, lounge, and wardrobe, with a giant loudspeaker in the top corner making buzzer noises you’d hear at any sporting event.

Bianca Del Rio as Mme. Pernelle opens the show with her full chest reading everyone for filth in rhyming couplets and it was a role that she was absolutely born to play. Lisa Kron also got a lot of laughs out of me as the exhausted put-upon maid who also had some good zingers under her belt. Out of the rest, Amber Gray and Ryan Haddad fair the best, since they both know how to make a meal out of any material, but the rest seem adrift with little to do or are woefully miscast.

Emily Davis is left to mostly just whine and cry in a bubble pink dress looking like a Kristin Chenoweth call-back to Charlie Brown and Wicked. Francis Jue and Ike Ufomadu seemed very restricted in their roles, like they had the chance to be broader, but weren’t allowed to.

This brings me to Cross and Broderick who, as someone suggested earlier, should have DEFINITELY switched roles here. Broderick continues to coast on his generally impish demeanor as the new iteration of America’s Oldest Teenager, which is not what I want in a Tartuffe. I need broader gestures and more overt charisma that could make you believe he has put someone under their spell. Broderick is dressed like a drab pilgrim and is lacking the verve to sell his schtick to make me believe he conned Cross’ Orgon. However, Cross fares MUCH better as Orgon, all pomp and haughty stubbornness, including great chemistry with Gray, even if his energy was flagging a bit by the end.

Overall, this one is definitely a skip if you saw the far superior de Shields production, and since there are no tickets under $100 for the rest of the run, if you are a bargain hunter, this is a VERY easy decision to make.

quizking101 said: "I went last night on one of the very limited $23 TDF seats they had in an early sale.

I’ll start simply- André de Shields’ recent Tartuffe blows this one out of the water by a country mile. That production was high concept, campy, and well-performed. This, comparatively, felt like an overlong SNL-style facsimile that, while I laughed quite a few times, ultimately did not amount to a satisfying whole. Hnath tries to add modern profanity and parlance into the piece, but it doesn’t really do anything meaningful, Raja Feather Kelly’s choreo seemed completely unnecessary, and Sarah Benson’s direction seemed like she just took her hands off the wheel and let the car drive itself. The set is a single dining room but is also somehow a tennis court, lounge, and wardrobe, with a giant loudspeaker in the top corner making buzzer noises you’d hear at any sporting event.

Bianca Del Rio as Mme. Pernelle opens the show with her full chest reading everyone for filth in rhyming coupletsand it was a role that she was absolutely born to play. Lisa Kron also got a lot of laughs out of me as the exhausted put-upon maid who also had some good zingers under her belt. Out of the rest, Amber Gray and Ryan Haddad fair the best, since they both know how to make a meal out of any material, but the rest seem adrift with little to do or are woefully miscast.

Emily Davis is left to mostly just whine and cry in a bubble pink dress looking like a Kristin Chenoweth call-back to Charlie Brown and Wicked. Francis Jue and Ike Ufomadu seemed very restricted in their roles, like they had the chance to be broader, but weren’t allowed to.

This brings me to Cross and Broderick who, as someone suggested earlier, should have DEFINITELY switched roles here. Broderick continues to coast on his generally impish demeanor as the new iteration of America’s Oldest Teenager, which is not what I want in a Tartuffe. I need broader gestures and more overt charisma that could make you believe he has put someone under their spell. Broderick is dressed like a drab pilgrim and is lacking the verve to sell his schtick to make me believe he conned Cross’ Orgon. However, Cross fares MUCH better as Orgon, all pomp and haughty stubbornness, including great chemistry with Gray, even if his energy was flagging a bit by the end.

Overall, this one is definitely a skip if you saw the far superior de Shields production, and since there are no tickets under $100 for the rest of the run, if you are a bargain hunter, this is a VERY easy decision to make."

Yeah no, I gotta disagree. The de Shields production was so unbelievably bad and amateurish. The translation felt like it was written by an 8th grader. It was all dumb.

I saw NYTW's last night and had a great time, so did the rest of the audience to what I heard. It's funny and fun and I thin Hnath added some nice touches to his translation. I think the issues they had during early previews have been ironed out and I was extremely pleased by this production.

Reviews are dropping. Vincentelli is lukewarm in the Times.

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/theater/tartuffe-review-matthew-broderick-david-cross.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9U8.Tvo9.DJ8Ip8LPxORr&smid=url-share

"A more traditional production might have switched the actors playing the two men, considering Broderick’s and Cross’s styles, but the counterintuitive casting keeps the show on its toes. In fact, casting in general is the ace in the director Sarah Benson’s sleeve as the company ably navigates Lucas Hnath’s fluid, if sometimes unnecessarily profane, verse adaptation of this classic 17th-century French comedy. (Admittedly, I did shudder hearing Hnath rhyme “Tartuffe” with words like “goof” since it should be pronounced with a hard “u” sound.)"

Tart-uff. This was a slog. It’s a good adaptation of a great play, the cast is game, but it suffers from a lack of direction and momentum. The pace is lackadaisical with unnecessary interstitial music and pointless scene change “choreography” killing the mood. This should have been faster and shorter. The flat lighting and amateurish set don’t do anything to enhance or distract from the tedium.

Matthew Broderick is surprisingly good, mostly because he’s making strong choices and giving his classic character a new interpretation. The acting is solid and thoughtfully restrained throughout. Bianca Del Rio brings some much needed energy in her brief appearances. Lisa Kron brings droll wit and Francis Jur brings heart and soul. David Cross… remembered his lines.

Overall this felt like elevated community theater. You appreciate the effort and chuckle politely, but can’t wait for it to end. My main takeaway is that the seats at NYTW are butt killers.