The Off-Broadway revival of Clifford Odets‘ Waiting for Lefty, currently in previews at Classic Stage Company, will officially open November 2. Get a first look at the production in the gallery below.
Stage and screen star Steven Pasquale directs a cast that includes Tony nominee Tala Ashe (English), Raffi Barsoumian (CSC’s Macbeth, Les Liaisons Dangereuses), Austin Durant (Moulin Rouge! The Musical), Greg Hildreth (CSC’s I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Chicago), Adam Kantor (The Band’s Visit), Doireann Mac Mahon (The Honey Trap), Zach McNally (West Side Story), Sahar Milani (Hound Dog), Cameron Scoggins (The Hills of California), and Henry Stram (Network).
Odets’ play, which premiered in 1935, centers on a group of exhausted Depression-era New York City taxi drivers gathering to make a life-changing choice. Pasquale’s production transforms CSC into a high-stakes union hall, newly featuring original music (by Yeller Tooth, aka Sahar Milani and Cameron Scoggins) and movement (by Susan Misner).
About how he found the company for the show, Pasquale previously said: “I wanted to do a Brechtian, full evening of Waiting for Lefty that feels multidisciplinary, and so I wanted to gather some of the city’s great shapeshifters, actors, mover, players, musicians, singers, comedians, dramatists, to take a really big swing and make a full evening out of what is traditionally a half of an evening. And so that’s how we ended up with this world-class room of people. Nutshell? I basically just asked some of my favorite actors, and they all jumped at the chance to do this play at this moment in this country.”
Performances are currently scheduled through November 22 at CSC’s Lynn F. Angelson Theater.
The creative team for Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty includes scenic designer Scott Adam Davis, costume designer Márion Talán de la Rosa, lighting designer Mextly Couzin, and sound designer Palmer Hefferan.