Queens by Martyna Majok

[The Bandstand]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 11:53am

Performances begin October 14 at NY City Center.

From Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok comes an epic drama about hunting for the American Dream, finding family, and facing the ghosts you left behind. In an illegal basement apartment in Queens, multiple generations of immigrant women fight to launch a new life. But when a young Ukrainian woman comes searching for the mother who abandoned her years ago, she forces a reckoning with the impossible choices the women made to survive. Directed by Trip Cullman, Queens chronicles the strivers who sacrificed whole worlds for the chance at something remarkable.

[jbm2]

Posted: 10/12/25 at 7:00pm

Excited for this one.

anyone know the running time? 

[Marcus Lycus]

Posted: 10/20/25 at 1:19pm

Has anyone seen it? 

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 10/20/25 at 4:05pm

I guess first preview was cancelled last night due to sewage issues or something?

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/20/25 at 4:27pm

Marcus Lycus said: "Has anyone seen it?"

Block the following since they are the same person (on going list)

Cream Puff

Bandstand

BlowGabriel

KrupYou

CrustyBagel

BroadwayFlash

AfricanQueen

AngelofHarlem

Marcus Lycus

Cockeyed Optimist

[raddersons]

Posted: 10/21/25 at 10:55pm

Went tonight and to be honest I feel like this play is a bit all over the place. Act 1 is a little boring, Act 2 amps it up emotionally but I’m not quite sure what the show is trying to say. It’s primarily about how we need to support one another and how lonely it is to pull up the ladder after you, but there’s a lot of other things mixed in that didn’t add up to a satisfying narrative. I just never bought in Act 1 that these women really like each that much, nor did I believe that the characters in Act 1 grow into the ones in act 2. It zips around between 2017, 2011, and 2001 after 9/11 (why?), as well as Ukraine for a bit too. And these accents… are not good. I dunno, I wanted to like this a lot, I love an immigrant story but this wasn’t it for me. Hoping the actors get to build the relationships between the characters more in the coming weeks and find a straighter emotional through-line. 

Updated On: 10/21/25 at 10:55 PM

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 10/22/25 at 10:34pm

For run time: I was on the street 2:30 after the posted starting time

I really enjoyed this tonight, and I thought it was a really interesting way to examine the different women who leave their home lands to come to the US and explore their reasons for doing so, as well as what it means for them once they get here.  It feels a bit long (I was actually surprised to see only 2 hours and 30 minutes had passed) but I was engaged the whole time, so I think it's more just that a lot of things happen since there's some flashing back and forth between time periods, and the second act also introduces 2 more characters.  I thought the friendships (or in many cases, lack thereof) between the different women made for a different kind of story than other immigrant stories we've seen before.  It's not necessarily the "we're all in this together" vibe that Real Women Have Curves portrayed, but I liked that it felt more real and added in more of a real world consideration to how these women would live their lives and just try to survive, while still longing for a sense of connection.

I agree that the positioning of one of the time periods right after 9/11 seemed a little puzzling to me since they made a point of mentioning it a few times but never really utilized the aftermath of it in any specific way.  And there were a couple of scenes where some of the character development didn't quite make sense (Julia Lester's character in scenes 1 and 2 of the second act does almost a complete 180) and there's a development in Marin Ireland's character that never gets explained, but I just enjoyed spending time trying to understand what kind of life these women had had.

Updated On: 10/23/25 at 10:34 PM

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 10/23/25 at 12:09am

I saw this. Obviously it’s a great team and an absolutely stacked cast of amazing talent. 
 

I’m glad I saw it but the play does need to be some trimming and molding.

I felt like Marin Ireland’s character had the central and clearest arc though I agree the change in her character comes about too quickly/unexpectedly and not entirely in a good way. But she’s an absolutely thrilling actor and sells it. 
 

I admit maybe it lost my attention but I totally feel like I never understood 

 

 

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If Julia Lester’s character was actually Marin Ireland’s character’s daughter or if they just had opposing conflicts in life and that was the source of the tension

My friend I saw it with was also confused about that as well, which I think probably isn’t a great sign since that’s such a central piece of the story.

 

Still, this loved me at times and many of the actors have some really lovely moments—but again, most Ireland walks away with the show. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 10/23/25 at 12:19am

BroadwayGirl107 said: "
I admit maybe it lost my attention but I totally feel like I never understood

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

If Julia Lester’s character was actually Marin Ireland’s character’s daughter or if they just had opposing conflicts in life and that was the source of the tension

"

I thought it was pretty apparent that 

 

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Inna was not in fact Renia's daughter, since in the scene in 2011 one of the characters mentions her daughter had gotten married and had a kid, and when we see Inna in 2017 she mentions she has no one to care about her (other than the lady she babysits for) and it seems like her grandmother died recently (while Renia got the news about her mother in 2001).  Renia also mentioned that she had gotten in contact with her daughter to ask her to come to the US but her daughter refused, not to mention that Renia is from Poland while Inna is from Ukraine (I do think at the end of the first act they try to make it ambiguous, but act 2 pretty much cleared that up for me).

I think the tension was more that Inna could not understand why a mother who claimed to love her daughter would never go back to see her, and Renia was trying to defend the idea that she would've lost momentum with the life she was trying to build in the US (and I think also would've felt insecure about not having a good enough life to return with).

 

[raddersons]

Posted: 10/23/25 at 9:52am

I do have to say one thing I was thinking about yesterday that was refreshing was seeing 

 

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a capitalist/republican immigrant arc,

which I feel like we see in the news a lot but you never see on stage in New York. I just wish it were executed better. I think it’s so fascinating to explore but sitting in the room I was not feeling it.