Theater News

Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic to Run on Broadway

The three-hour drama will be presented by Manhattan Theatre Club.

Nancy Robinette, Kenneth Tigar, Ari Brand, Pierre Epstein, Peyton Lusk, and Richard Topol appear in Joshua Harmon's Prayer for the French Republic, directed by David Cromer, for MTC at New York City Center – Stage I.
Nancy Robinette, Kenneth Tigar, Ari Brand, Pierre Epstein, Peyton Lusk, and Richard Topol in Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic, directed by David Cromer, for MTC at New York City Center – Stage I.
(© Matthew Murphy)

Joshua Harmon’s award-winning drama Prayer for the French Republic will transfer to Broadway this winter, beginning previews December 19 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in advance of a January 9 opening. David Cromer directs.

The three-hour work will once again be presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, which produced the play’s world premiere in the winter of 2022 at its off-Broadway space. Complete casting and other information is still to be announced.

Harmon received 2022 Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Prayer for the French Republic, which follows a French-Jewish family through the decades after World War II as they grapple with the question of whether or not they’re safe in the land they’ve inhabited for generations.

Off-Broadway, the large ensemble included Betsy Aidem, Yair Ben-Dor, Francis Benhamou, Ari Brand, Pierre Epstein, Peyton Lusk, Molly Ranson, Nancy Robinette, Jeff Seymour, Kenneth Tigar, and Richard Topol. The show’s creative team included Takeshi Kata (scenic design), Sarah Laux (costume design), Amith Chandrashaker (lighting design), Lee Kinney and Daniel Kluger (sound design), and Daniel Kluger (original music).

Harmon has built a reputation as the author of hard-hitting and timely dramas, but TheaterMania’s review of the off-Broadway production describes the show as follows:> “The drama crackles, but doesn’t knock the wind out of you as so many of Harmon’s plays have in the past.”