The Family Dog, the Bailey Williams comedy that sold out its Summerworks run last June, is coming back. Clubbed Thumb will remount it at New York Theatre Workshop for four weeks only, February 9–March 6, 2027, with the original cast and creative team returning.
Previews begin Tuesday, February 9, and opening night is set for Monday, February 15, ahead of a final performance on Saturday, March 6. A full performance schedule is still to come, and tickets go on sale in November.
The setup is plain enough: a woman goes back to the house she grew up in to say goodbye to the dog that took her place there. Where it goes from that point is less predictable, and the company’s own summary promises miracles, at least one of them involving a meatball.
For Williams it is a second production with Clubbed Thumb, after Coach Coach. The company commissioned and developed the play, then premiered it at the Wild Project on June 18–30 as part of its 2026 Summerworks festival of new work. Williams also co-directs the Exponential Festival and produces with New Georges.
Tara Ahmadinejad, the Obie-winning director and co-founder of the live arts collective Piehole, stages it again. Her earlier Clubbed Thumb work includes Grief Hotel by Liza Birkenmeier, Lunch Bunch by Adrian Einspanier and The Woman’s Party by Rinne Groff.
All seven actors return: Ethan Dubin, a Clubbed Thumb affiliated artist who was in the Broadway company of The Ferryman; Andrew Garman, whose Off-Broadway credits include Anon at MCC; Brendan George, Drama Desk-nominated for the solo show A Eulogy for Roman; Bruce McKenzie, seen in Clubbed Thumb’s Grief Hotel; Talene Monahon, the playwright of Meet the Cartozians, back on stage as an actor; Sarah Steele, of Broadway’s The Humans and all six seasons of The Good Fight; and Jennifer Van Dyck, a frequent collaborator of Charles Busch whose credits include Ibsen’s Ghost.
The design team is unchanged too: sets by Colleen Murray, costumes by Mel Ng, lighting by Masha Tsimring and sound by Ben Vigus, with Esti Bernstein as production stage manager.
The summer notices go some way to explaining the return. Helen Shaw called it “family comedy with thorns: wise, funny, mean, sacred,” while David Cote described “a Clubbed Thumb show that needs to return for a bigger audience.”
New York Theatre Workshop is at 79 East 4th Street, between Bowery and Second Avenue. More information is on Clubbed Thumb’s website.
