B'way Update: Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd in Small Mouth Sounds

Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd, and 
Sarah Paulson will star in
Small Mouth Sounds on Broadway.

Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd will return to Broadway in an all-star production of Bess Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds which previously played Off-Broadway in 2015. Roberts and Rudd co-starred in a staging of Three Days of Rain in 2006 (which is also returning to Broadway this season.) Small Mouth will be directed by three-time Tony winner Joe Mantello who will also be directing a new production of Downstate on Broadway. This production is another in a growing trend of Broadway transfers of recent Off-Broadway critical success. (There are now 13 play revivals scheduled for Broadway this season and only four new plays.) Wohl is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Liberation which had a similar Off-to-on Main Stem trajectory. Small Mouth won the John Gassner Award for Outstanding Play by a new American author from the Outer Critics Circle. Previews for Small Mouth Sounds begin on Feb. 18, 2027 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in advance of a March 18 opening. 

Also starring are Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), Greta Lee (The Morning Show), Tony and Drama Desk winner Sarah Paulson (Appropriate), and Isaac Powell (Once on This Island). The play concerns six strangers meeting at a spiritual retreat and trying to keep a vow of silence. Scott Rudin and Barry Diller are the producers.

B'way Update: Liberation Transfers

l-r: Adina Verson, Irene Sofia Lucio, Audrey Corsa,
Susannah Flood, Betsy Aidem, and
Kristolyn Lloyd in the Off-Broadway
world premiere production of Liberation 
at Roundabout Theatre Company.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Playwright Bess Wohl will make her Broadway debut when her play Liberation opens at the James Earl Jones Theater after a critically acclaimed run at the Roundabout Theater Company's Off-Broadway Laura Pels Theater last season. Previews begin Oct. 8 in advance of an Oct. 28 opening. The play about a women's consciousness-raising group in the 1970s was named Outstanding Off-Broadway Play by the Outer Critics Circle and the ensemble cast was awarded citations from the Drama Desk and the New York Drama Critics Circle. Whitney White will repeat her directing duties. The cast and creative team has not yet been announced.

“Bringing Liberation to Broadway is, quite literally, a dream come true for me,” says playwright Bess Wohl. “This play has lived in my heart for a very long time, and I’m beyond thrilled to continue its journey with this fantastic team at this moment. I can’t wait to share it with Broadway audiences.”

“Liberation is a play in which all things personal become political,” says director Whitney White. “Set in the Midwest, which I call home, the play follows a group of ordinary women striving for what shouldn’t be extraordinary— equality. I cannot wait to share this story with the audience again on Broadway, home to great American storytelling. The laughs, the vibes, the revelations and all that happens on stage will make you wonder what’s been lost and how we should all be fighting to get it back.”