APRIL 2024 – HAYES THEATER
MOTHERÂ PLAY
BY
PAULA VOGEL
DIRECTEDÂ BY
TINA LANDAU
WITH
CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER, JESSICA LANGE, JIM PARSONS
It’s 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis (Jessica Lange) is supervising her teenage children, Carl (Jim Parsons) and Martha (Celia Keenan-Bolger), as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe be the child who finds their own path. Bolstered by gin and cigarettes, the family endures — or survives — the changing world around them. Blending flares of imaginative theatricality, surreal farce, and deep tenderness, this beautiful roller coaster ride reveals timeless truths of love, family, and forgiveness.
APRIL 2024Â
Guarantee your seats to see Mother Play by Paula Vogel with a 2ST subscription. Single tickets will go on sale October 17.

CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER
CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER returns to Second Stage Theater where she appeared in A Parellelogram, Bachelorette, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Little Fish. Other credits - Broadway: To Kill a Mockingbird, Glass Menagerie, The Cherry Orchard, Peter and The Starcatcher, Les Misérables, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Off-Broadway: The Oldest Boy, Merrily We Roll Along, A Small Fire. Select Film/TV: “The Gilded Age,” “Bull,” “Louie,” “The Good Wife,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Good Behavior,”
“Elementary,” Diane, The Visit, Breakable You. Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle, three Drama Desk Award wins. Member of The Actors Center. NYCLU Michael Friedman Freedom Award recipient. UMichigan graduate. Training to be an end-of-life doula.Â

JESSICA LANGEÂ
JESSICA LANGE. Acclaimed as one of the greatest actresses of her generation, Jessica Lange has dazzled the screen with over 30 credits to her name. Lange has won a Tony Award, two Academy Awards, three Emmys, five Golden Globes, and one SAG Award. On Broadway, she received the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for her performance as Mary Tyrone in A Long Day’s Journey into Night, a role she also performed in the West End. She made her Broadway debut in A Streetcar Named Desire and was also seen starring in The Glass Menagerie. Lange stared in the television series “American Horror Story,” as well as “Grey Gardens,” “Feud: Bette and Joan,” and “The Politician.” Her films include Blue Sky, Frances, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Country, Rob Roy, Cape Fear, Tootsie, Music Box, and Sweet Dreams.

JIM PARSONSÂ
Jim Parsons continues to skillfully navigate the entertainment industry as an award-winning actor and producer.  Â
He will soon begin production on Just by Looking at Him. The film is an adaptation of Ryan O’Connell’s novel of the same name. Parsons will star alongside O’Connell in the comedy.  Â
In December 2022, Parsons starred alongside Ben Aldridge in Focus Features’ Spoiler Alert based on Michael Ausiello’s acclaimed memoir of the same title. Parsons' That’s Wonderful Productions produced the film, which was nominated for Outstanding Film – Wide Release at the GLAAD Media Awards. Â
He recently led the Off-Broadway revival of A Man of No Importance, the 2002 musical featuring a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens for The Classic Stage Company. He received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for his performance and the show was nominated for Drama League, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 2020, he starred in the Netflix movie The Boys in the Band. He previously starred in the Broadway production of the show as well. Parsons starred on Broadway in An Act of God, written by 13-time Emmy Award winner David Javerbaum and directed by Joe Mantello. Parsons starred in the Broadway revival of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play  Harvey. He received a Theatre World Award and Emmy nomination for his debut Broadway performance as “Tommy Boatwright” in The Normal Heart, starring opposite Ellen Barkin, John Benjamin Hickey, and Joe Mantello. The Normal Heart  won a Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Play” and was presented with the Drama Desk Award for “Outstanding Revival of a Play” and “Outstanding Ensemble Performance.” Parsons’ other stage performances include, The Castle, The Countess as well as The Tempest  and As You Like It.  Â
Parsons' breakout role was that of Sheldon Cooper from the CBS smash hit The Big Bang Theory. The show was the #1 comedy in America and in many parts of the world. The Big Bang Theory also made history as the longest running multi-camera sitcom ever with 279 shows. Â

BY PAULA VOGEL
Paula Vogel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose plays include Indecent (Tony Award nomination for Best Play), How I Learned to Drive  (Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Award nomination, the Lortel Prize, OBIE Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play), The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot’n’Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Oldest Profession  and A Civil War Christmas. In June 2020, she founded Paula Vogel’s Bard at the Gate, a uniquely curated virtual reading series designed to become a widely accessible platform for powerful, overlooked plays by BIPOC, female, LGBTQIA+, and disabled artists. Lifetime achievement awards include American Theatre Hall of Fame Award, the Obie Award, and NY Drama Critics Circle Award. She is honored to have awards dedicated to emerging playwrights in her name: The American College Theatre Festival’s Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, and the Paula Vogel Award given annually by the Vineyard Theatre. She was the 2019 inaugural UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Hearst Theater Lab Initiative Distinguished Playwright-in-Residence. Her plays are published in six volumes by TCG Press and her memoir will be published by Penguin Press. She teaches playwriting workshops throughout the United States and abroad. www.paulavogelplaywright.comÂ
