Manhattan Theatre Club has a new director for its spring world premiere on Broadway: Jonathan Kent will stage Montauk, the new play by David Hare starring Laura Linney, in place of Daniel Sullivan, who has announced his retirement after a 55-year career.
Previews begin on Tuesday, March 30, 2027, at MTC’s Broadway house, the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre at 261 West 47th Street, and opening night is set for Monday, April 19, 2027. The rest of the cast will be announced later.
The change keeps the play with a director Hare knows well. The two have worked together for close to three decades, on Pirandello’s The Rules of the Game, on Peter Gynt, and on the Young Chekhov trilogy of Platonov, Ivanov and The Seagull, which began at Chichester before moving to the National Theatre in London. Kent has worked at this address before, too: MTC presented his production of The Height of the Storm at the Friedman, and his other Broadway credits include Medea, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Faith Healer and Man of La Mancha. An Olivier and Tony nominee, he was joint artistic director of London’s Almeida Theatre from 1990 to 2002.
“Working with David is always a profound joy. His writing is as vital, witty and razor-sharp as ever, and delving into a world premiere play of his is exhilarating,” Kent said. “To collaborate as well with Laura Linney is an exquisite gift.”
Sullivan leaves with 20 MTC productions behind him, staged across all three of the company’s theaters. The most decorated was David Auburn’s Proof, a Pulitzer and Tony winner that also brought Sullivan the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play; the others include David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole and Good People, Donald Margulies’ Sight Unseen and Time Stands Still, and Auburn’s Summer, 1976. Four of them starred Linney. He also directed the Public Theater’s production of Hare’s Stuff Happens, and his Broadway credits run from I’m Not Rappaport and The Heidi Chronicles to Glengarry Glen Ross.
“It has been a privilege to bring stories to life alongside the most brilliant artists in the theatre, but I feel it’s time for me to step into a well-earned retirement,” Sullivan said, calling his successor “a visionary of immense talent.” Hare, who recalled Sullivan’s staging of Stuff Happens at the Delacorte as one of the most unforgettable nights he has had, added: “It’s a sadness for me that Dan is retiring, but no-one could step into his huge shoes better than Jonathan Kent.”
MTC’s Lynne Meadow called Sullivan’s productions for the company “legends of the American theatre,” and said he will stay on as a special advisor. “There is no director with whom I have worked more closely than the great Dan Sullivan,” she said.
The play is set toward the wilder end of Long Island, where the abstract painter Jared Speight has lived alone and embittered since a first show that made his name too early. Linney plays Roxy Margaux, an essayist whose books on difficult modern art have become bestsellers. Her first visit to his studio starts a relationship that tests how each of them has learned to survive, and the play asks what people give up for the things they love most.
Linney’s history with MTC goes back to Beggars in the House of Plenty in 1991 and the company’s original Off-Broadway Sight Unseen in 1992. She has since led five of its Broadway productions: Sight Unseen, Time Stands Still, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, My Name Is Lucy Barton and Summer, 1976. A five-time Tony nominee and four-time Emmy winner, she has also been Oscar-nominated for You Can Count on Me, Kinsey and The Savages.
For Hare, a two-time Olivier winner and three-time Tony nominee, Montauk is a first Broadway outing since the Tony-winning 2015 revival of Skylight. His earlier Broadway plays include Plenty, Racing Demon, Amy’s View and The Vertical Hour, and he was Oscar-nominated for his screenplays for The Hours and The Reader.
Subscriptions to MTC’s 2026–27 season are on sale at manhattantheatreclub.com and through the Clubline at 212-399-3050.
