The Steel Man, Cary Gitter’s drama about a son and his Holocaust-survivor father, reaches Manhattan this fall in Penguin Rep Theatre’s production, with Sam Guncler, Amanda Kristin Nichols and Leighton Samuels in the company.
Penguin Rep Theatre, the Stony Point company that has been making new work in Rockland County for nearly five decades, brings The Steel Man to 59E59 Theaters from November 3 to December 13. The transfer was on the slate the company announced in March; the three-person cast is now set.
The play, which Penguin says was inspired by a true story, centers on Jake Gellert and his father, Leo, a Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust. Leo has never left the past behind, nor let go of the wish to avenge the family he lost. Jake wants a life of his own making, and some way to give the old man rest.
Joe Brancato, Penguin’s founding artistic director, directs Sam Guncler, Amanda Kristin Nichols and Leighton Samuels. Sets are by Christopher and Justin Swader, costumes by Christian Fleming and lighting by Ed McCarthy, with music and sound by Max Silverman, projections by Brian Pacelli and props by Buffy Cardoza. Casting is by Jenn Haltman.
59E59 bills the production as coming from the team behind Gene & Gilda and The Sabbath Girl. Penguin is a resident co-op company at the theater, and this is the second of two Off-Broadway transfers on its 2026 slate, following Tom Dudzick’s Miracle on South Division at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in April and May.
The play runs 85 minutes with no intermission and contains discussion of the Holocaust and of post-traumatic stress disorder. The 7:15pm performance on Saturday, November 21, is followed by a talkback with Gitter and Dr. Eva Fogelman, a psychologist and author whose work deals with how the Holocaust is carried from one generation to the next.
Performances are Tuesday to Friday at 7:15pm, Saturday at 2:15pm and 7:15pm, and Sunday at 2:15pm. Tickets are $54 including a $4 fee, or $40 for 59E59 members, and the first two performances, November 3 and 4, are First Look nights at $27. 59E59 Theaters is at 59 East 59th Street.
