The Public Theater has released the first production photographs of Good Time Charlie, the new play by Ryan J. Haddad, now in previews in Martinson Hall ahead of its official opening on Friday, October 9.
The play is being staged in the building where it began. Haddad wrote it as his application to The Public’s Emerging Writers Group and spent two years developing it in that program, and the theater has already extended the run through Sunday, October 25. It brings him back to The Public after Dark Disabled Stories, which received an Obie Award for Best American New Play, and reunites him with the director Danny Sharron, who staged his Hold Me in the Water at Playwrights Horizons.
Its subject is a love of the theater handed down a generation. Charlie wanted a life on the stage, but his parents thought dentistry a safer bet, so he poured his enthusiasm into his nephew Ryan, another theater-mad gay kid with his sights set on Broadway. Across more than thirty years, the play follows gay men of two generations growing up, falling in love and holding on to the art that sustains them, and it is written as a comedy.
“This play is a tribute to families, gay elders, and those who love and revere theater with fervent passion,” Haddad said.
Haddad plays Ryan, with Jonathan Raviv as Charlie, Beth Malone as Janice, Michael Cristofer as Sheldon, Timothy Bagley as Lou, Nael Nacer as Charlie Sr. and Bob, and Artemis Pebdani as Joan and Judy. Sherz Aletaha, Nicholas Barrón and Doug Shapiro are the understudies.
The design team is Afsoon Pajoufar (scenic), Enver Chakartash (costumes), Barbara Samuels (lighting), Ryan Gamblin (sound design and composition) and Robert Pickens (hair, wigs and makeup). Sarah Lunnie is the dramaturg.
Open-captioned, audio-described and sensory-adapted performances are scheduled across the run, the last open-captioned one on Saturday, October 24 at 7pm. For the rest of the company’s year, see our report on The Public’s 2026–27 season additions.
