Theater News

Oscar Winner Joins Broadway Revival of Spring Awakening

Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin joins the Deaf West company.

Oscar-winning deaf actress Marlee Matlin joins the Broadway cast of Spring Awakening.
Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin joins the Broadway cast of Spring Awakening.

Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin will join Deaf West's production of Spring Awakening, coming to Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre this fall. Performances for its limited 18-week engagement are set to begin September 8 in advance of a September 27 opening and will run through January 9, 2016.

Matlin earned both a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama and an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Children of a Lesser God (1986), making her the only deaf performer to ever win an Oscar. She has also earned four Emmy nominations and is a prominent member of the National Association of the Deaf. Her television credits include Seinfeld, The West Wing, Picket Fences, The Practice, Switched at Birth, and season six of Dancing With the Stars.

"It’s been thirty years since I had the opportunity to be part of the groundbreaking Children of a Lesser God," said Matlin, "and I couldn’t be more proud and honored to have been asked to join Deaf West Theatre’s innovative revival of Spring Awakening on Broadway."

Produced by Ken Davenport, Cody Lassen, Hunter Arnold, and Deaf West Theatre, this is the New York transfer of Michael Arden's acclaimed 2014 revival, which is performed simultaneously in English and American Sign Language. Based on the 1891 Frank Wedekind play, and set against the backdrop of a repressive and provincial late-19th-century Germany, Spring Awakening tells the timeless story of teenage self-discovery and budding sexuality as seen through the eyes of three teenagers.

With book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik, the production features choreography by Spencer Liff. The creative team includes Dane Laffrey (scenic and costume design), Ben Stanton (lighting design), Gareth Owen (sound design), and Lucy Mackinnon (projection design).

For tickets and more information, click here.

Featured In This Story