Roundabout Theatre Company reopens its new-work strand in February with The Blue Parts, a world premiere by Liba Vaynberg directed by Lee Sunday Evans — and every Underground seat is now pay-what-you-wish, starting at $10.
The Blue Parts is the twentieth production to come out of Roundabout Underground, the strand the company built so that a writer early in their career gets a full production rather than a reading. Liba Vaynberg arrives at it as Roundabout’s 2025-2026 Underground Resident Playwright, and the play reaches the stage having been commissioned first by Working Theatre (Mark Plesent, Producing Artistic Director).
Performances begin on Thursday, February 18, 2027 at the Black Box Theatre inside the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, at 111 West 46th Street. Opening night is Thursday, March 11, and the limited engagement runs through Sunday, April 18. The room holds 62 seats. Performances play Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30PM, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:30PM.
What comes with it is a change of price. Roundabout is moving every Underground production to pay-what-you-wish, starting at $10, and The Blue Parts is the first title to carry it. Full ticketing details are still to be announced.
“Roundabout Underground grew from Todd Haimes’ belief that emerging artists deserve the space and resources to take risks and develop their voices,” said artistic director Christopher Ashley. “With the support of our Board and our entire team, it became a home where writers early in their careers could see their work fully produced.”
“I’m excited to build on that vision in Underground’s next chapter,” Ashley added. “To mark it, tickets for The Blue Parts will be pay-what-you-wish, starting at $10. It’s a fitting way to begin, and it means anyone who wants to see this work can.”
The play itself is small and coastal. A storm shuts Marina inside her store with a teenager canvassing to save the whales, and the two of them have to cross the water between them. It is billed as a story of migration to and from Brighton Beach, told in water, salt and VHS tapes.
Casting and the remainder of the creative team will be announced later.
Lee Sunday Evans is a two-time Obie winner and the artistic director of Waterwell. Her recent work includes Heather Christian’s Oratorio For Living Things, the world premiere of Lauren Yee’s A Wrinkle In Time, Clare Barron’s Dance Nation and The Courtroom, made with Arian Moayed and first staged in a courtroom in the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse.
Vaynberg is a first-generation American writer and actor whose plays include The Matriarchs, The Gett and Scheiss Book. She wrote for the AppleTV+ series Star City, and holds commissions from Miami New Drama, Lucille Lortel and Roundabout. Her acting credits include four seasons of New Amsterdam.
The Underground turns 20 in the fall of 2027, and its alumni are the argument for it: Stephen Karam, Steven Levenson, Joshua Harmon, Sanaz Toossi and Selina Fillinger all had a New York production there first. Every Underground playwright also leaves with a commission for a future play. Further information is at roundabouttheatre.org.
