John Patrick Shanley, one of the nation\u2019s best-known playwrights, sits in a rehearsal room at Chain Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Born in the Bronx and long a Brooklyn resident, he is at work on his latest play, \u201cThe Pushover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although his work has been presented on Broadway, Shanley is rehearsing \u201cThe Pushover\u201d at the Chain, where he suggests stage business, makes adjustments, cuts and even adds an occasional line. Rebecca De Mornay stars, bringing the lead character to life in a production directed by Kirk Gostkowski.<\/p>\n
A kind of bard of the Bronx and Brooklyn, Shanley has become a presence on Broadway and in regional theater, now debuting this play in a 99-seat venue.\n<\/p>\n
His \u201cDoubt: A Parable,\u201d set in the Bronx, won a Pulitzer Prize. \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d set in Brooklyn, earned an Academy Award and starred Nicolas Cage and Cher. About two years ago, Shanley may have come close to a Broadway record.<\/p>\n
Liev Schreiber starred in \u201cDoubt,\u201d and Aubrey Plaza appeared in \u201cDanny and the Deep Blue Sea.\u201d Nearby, at around the same time, \u201cBrooklyn Laundry\u201d was also running. You couldn\u2019t throw a stone on or near Broadway without hitting a Shanley show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know another modern playwright that is being produced like that,\u201d Gostkowski said. \u201cHis writing is incredible. The characters are real. There\u2019s so much for actors to dig into. To be able to write that way and to connect with people, you\u2019re operating on a higher plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pushover,\u201d starring De Mornay as Evelyn, along with Di Zhu as Pearl, Christina Toth as Soochie and Christopher Sutton as the therapist, is set to debut at the Chain Theatre, 312 W. 36th St., on Friday, April 3. Opening night is Monday, April 6, at 7 p.m., with performances running through Sunday, April 26. Tickets are $45\u2013$89 and available at chaintheatre.org.<\/p>\n
Even before \u201cThe Pushover\u201d closes, Shanley\u2019s \u201cSavage in Limbo,\u201d set in the Bronx, will be presented by BrooklynONE Productions at the Tom Kane Theatre in Brooklyn from April 23 to May 3. Tickets are $20 for students and $30 for general admission.<\/p>\n
Set in a dive bar, \u201cSavage in Limbo\u201d follows Bronx residents in the 1980s searching for meaning, identity and a way forward. \u201cThe Pushover\u201d follows three women at a New Mexico spa and an Asian restaurant in Queens, as a con develops and characters clash amid unfolding conversations and conflicts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an artistic enterprise for me,\u201d Shanley said of debuting work at the Chain. \u201cThe Chain Theater, in the ever-changing matrix of New York theater, has become the place where young people interested in theater go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gostkowski, who had worked with Shanley before on a one-act festival, approached him about presenting a full-length play.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI reached out. I was planning a season and asked if he had anything. This is what he gave me,\u201d Gostkowski said. \u201cAnd I immediately fell in love with it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Although Shanley\u2019s work is frequently produced, he has been writing since childhood in the Bronx.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a writer since I was about 10,\u201d Shanley said. \u201cPoems, snippets of stories. I liked to do it. I was a reader and writer from an early age. Maybe because I\u2019m Irish.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
With white hair and a somewhat cherubic smile, Shanley reflects on his early exposure to theater, recalling the first play he saw, \u201cThe Miracle Worker,\u201d at about age 11. His brother Tom helped build the set.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one in my family or my neighborhood had ever been in the arts,\u201d Shanley said. \u201cMy brother Tom was on stage crew, because he liked the people. He invited us, because we\u2019re his family. And it was a good show.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some playwrights begin as actors, Shanley joined the stage crew the next year at Cardinal Spellman High School, working on Edmond Rostand\u2019s \u201cCyrano de Bergerac\u201d and developing an appreciation for the script.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a born poet. I love language. I loved writing my poems,\u201d he said. \u201cTheater is an incredible way to connect poetry to the living world.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Shanley grew up immersed in his Bronx neighborhood \u2014 what he calls \u201ca street corner society\u201d \u2014 spending more than a decade gathering on street corners.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost all of us went to the same schools, public grammar school and one Catholic grammar school,\u201d he said. \u201cYou saw the same people every day for many, many years.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Shanley said he had \u201cno sense of future\u201d and didn\u2019t think much about how he would make a living or what would be a career.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people asked me, I said I would be an atomic physicist,\u201d he said. \u201cI noticed they would never ask me any more questions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He struggled in school and said he was \u201cthrown out for a misunderstanding,\u201d describing himself as a compulsive liar \u2014 or at least someone fascinated by fiction as well as reality \u2014 who \u201clived in a fantasy world.\u201d That experience became the basis for his play \u201cThe Prodigal Son.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CastPhoto-LtoR_-Christopher-Sutton-Di-Zhu-Rebecca-De-Mornay-Christina-Toth.jpg\")
Cast members (left to right) Christopher Sutton, Di Zhu, Rebecca De Mornay and Christina Toth pose for a photo for \u201cThe Pushover,\u201d a new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley, at the Chain Theatre in Midtown Manhattan.Photo courtesy of NYC CLC<\/p>\n
Although often seen as a bard of the Bronx and Brooklyn, Shanley sets \u201cThe Pushover\u201d in Queens and New Mexico, focusing on working people and hustlers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked in restaurants,\u201d he said. \u201cI know my share of criminals and hustlers. I\u2019m writing about a hustler, a criminal and a hard-working restaurateur.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Shanley grew up in the Bronx, joined the Marine Corps and later returned to New York, living in Park Slope in the 1970s, where he paid $280 a month in rent. He later moved to Brooklyn Heights and, about a decade ago, to Williamsburg, where he lives now.<\/p>\n
He wrote his first film, \u201cFive Corners,\u201d which changed his life financially, followed by \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d which won him an Academy Award and brought national and international recognition. \u201cDoubt: A Parable\u201d has since become an American classic, frequently performed.<\/p>\n
He has written numerous plays about life in Brooklyn, including \u201cBrooklyn Laundry,\u201d inspired by a personal experience.\n<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Brooklyn Laundry\u2019 is the result of an incident I had with my local drop-off laundry place where they lost my laundry. They never returned it,\u201d Shanley said. \u201cI started to look around, as I was walking around, seeing if I could spot my clothes on somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shanley said he enjoys living in New York City, where he has spent most of his life, balancing between Brooklyn, the Bronx and Broadway.\n<\/p>\n
Still, he noted that he has \u201cmostly worked smaller theaters.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI love doing plays for people who love the theater,\u201d Shanley said. \u201cAnd who want to do theater.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
De Mornay previously worked with Shanley on a benefit alongside Alec Baldwin for the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, which led to her role in \u201cThe Pushover.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought she was kind of great. I came to her with this play. She jumped right in,\u201d Shanley said. \u201cRebecca does a play in a 99-seat house. It\u2019s a way of supporting that theater. It\u2019s probably a better way of doing it than just writing a check.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shanley said he does not have additional plans for \u201cThe Pushover,\u201d much as he never had a fixed plan for himself \u2014 a path that, he acknowledges, has worked out well.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I\u2019m doing this play. I do things to do them,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have master plans about how they should be commercially.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Patrick Shanley, one of the nation\u2019s best-known playwrights, sits in a rehearsal room at Chain Theatre in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4982,2571,128,98,100,6748,99,157,71779,360,9,24,63,53517,71780,905,904],"class_list":["post-177169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-bronx","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-heights","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-entertainment","tag-john-patrick-shanley","tag-midtown","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-chain","tag-the-pushover","tag-theater","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}