On Thursday, September 30, Tony Award winner Lee Hall's play The Pitmen Painters opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Inspired by a book by William Feaver, the play is set in 1934, and follows a group of Ashington miners who hire a professor to teach an art appreciation class and soon begin to paint.

The production features the original cast, who have been with the production since it premiered at Live Theatre in 2007: Christopher Connel (Oliver Kilbourn), Michael Hodgson (Harry Wilson), Ian Kelly (Robert Lyon), Brian Lonsdale (Young Lad & Ben Nicholson), Lisa McGrillis (Susan Parks), Deka Walmsley (George Brown), David Whitaker (Jimmy Floyd), and Phillippa Wilson (Helen Sutherland).

In attendance were Trent Kowalik, David Alvarez, and Kiril Kulish -- the original stars of Broadway's Billy Elliot -- Frances Sternhagen, F. Murray Abraham, Janet McTeer, screenwriter Richard Lagravanese, Margaret Colin, Marian Seldes, Beau Willimon, Henry Wishcamper, and Daphne Rubin-Vega.