Theater News

Cynthia Nixon Will Return to the New Group to Direct during 2015-16 Season

Along with Mark Gerrard’s ”Steve”, the lineup includes Philip Ridley and Sam Shepard plays directed by Scott Elliott.

Cynthia Nixon will return to The New Group to direct Mark Gerrard's Steve.
Cynthia Nixon will return to The New Group to direct Mark Gerrard's Steve.
(© David Gordon)

The New Group has announced three productions for its 2015-16 season: the off-Broadway premiere of Philip Ridley’s Mercury Fur, directed by Scott Elliott; the world premiere of Mark Gerrard’s Steve, with director Cynthia Nixon returning to the New Group; and Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Buried Child, featuring Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, also directed by Elliott.

In Mercury Fur (August 2015), teenage brothers Elliot and Darren, who live in a society ravaged by warring gangs and a hallucinogenic-drug epidemic, throw parties for rich clients in abandoned apartment buildings that help guests act out their darkest, most sinister fantasies. Mercury Fur premiered in February 2005 at the Plymouth Theatre Royal and transferred to the Menier Chocolate Factory, in London, in March 2005. Casting is to be announced.

Steve (November 2015) follows Steven, a failed Broadway chorus boy turned stay-at-home dad as he celebrates yet another birthday. This new play was developed through the New Group’s New Group/New Works reading series. Casting is to be announced.

In Buried Child (February 2016) by Sam Shepard, Dodge (Ed Harris) and Hallie (Amy Madigan) are barely hanging onto their farmland and their sanity while looking after their two wayward grown sons. When their grandson Vince arrives with his girlfriend, no one seems to recognize him, and confusion abounds. Buried Child returns 20 years after its last major New York production.

The New Group’s 2015-2016 productions will take place at the Pershing Square Signature Center.