The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway returns to the Todd Haimes Theatre on Monday, November 2, and this year the one-night benefit is built around Thomas Kail. Tickets are $150, and the proceeds go to the organization’s year-round arts programming and education work rather than to the evening itself.
The format has barely changed in three decades, and the constraint is the point. At 7PM on the night before the performance, writers, directors, actors and production staff gather for a short orientation, and the cast then goes home. The writers stay up building six ten-minute plays for people they have only just met. The scripts are printed and copied in a rush the next morning, the actors collect their roles, the directors arrive, and rehearsals begin. At 7PM on Monday, November 2, all six plays go up at the Todd Haimes Theatre in front of a paying audience, roughly 24 hours after the first word was written.
Thomas Kail is this year’s honoree. The Tony Award-winning director and Kennedy Center honoree is best known for Hamilton, and his Broadway directing credits also take in Proof, Sweeney Todd, In the Heights, Freestyle Love Supreme, Lombardi and Magic/Bird. On screen he has directed and produced Fosse/Verdon, We Were the Lucky Ones, Up Here, Grease: Live and Disney’s live-action Moana. He has been involved with The 24 Hour Plays for years, and the company is drawing this year’s participants from across his career.
“The 24 Hour Plays is a terrific organization — one where I first worked on a Broadway stage and where I met many of my ongoing collaborators,” Kail said. “I’m delighted many of them will be participating this year and I can’t wait to see what this talented group of theater-makers cook up for the evening!”
“Thomas Kail is a singular artist and a longtime member of The 24 Hour Plays family,” said Mark Armstrong, the company’s artistic director. “His incredible body of work on stage and screen exemplifies the value of building strong, enduring creative communities, which is at the center of The 24 Hour Plays mission. We’re excited to bring together artists from across his career to create something new and to celebrate the relationships he has built along the way.”
The actors, writers and directors taking part have not been named yet, and will be announced shortly. The alumni list gives a fair idea of the range: Alan Cumming, America Ferrera, Billy Crudup, Daveed Diggs, Edie Falco, Julianne Moore, Kieran Culkin, Lynn Nottage, Marisa Tomei, Oscar Isaac, Peter Dinklage, Rosie Perez and Wallace Shawn have all taken part, as has Kail himself.
The Broadway night is the visible end of a wider operation. The 24 Hour Plays also produces The 24 Hour Musicals and The 24 Hour Plays Los Angeles, runs partner events in Denver, Sacramento, Savannah, Little Rock and Dublin, and stages a free professional intensive, The 24 Hour Plays Nationals, for early-career artists in New York and Los Angeles.
The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway runs at the Todd Haimes Theatre for one night only, on Monday, November 2 at 7PM. Tickets are $150 and are on sale now at 24HourPlays.org/Broadway, where VIP packages and sponsorship opportunities are also listed.
