Lolita Chakrabarti’s dazzling stage adaption of Yann Martel’s best-selling novel LIFE OF PI will premiere at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre beginning performances Thursday, March 9, 2023. Produced by Simon Friend, Daryl Roth, Hal Luftig, Mark Gordon and Playing Field, the five-time Olivier Award-Winning new play will open on Thursday, March 30, 2023. Prior to the Broadway engagement, LIFE OF PI will make its North American Premiere at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, co-led by Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Director Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., playing at the Loeb Drama Center December 4, 2022, through January 29, 2023.
As a proud partner of LIFE OF PI, American Express® Card Members have access to exclusive pre-sale tickets before the general public beginning Monday, October 24, 2022, at 10:00AM (ET) through Monday, October 31, 2022, at 9:59AM (ET) at Telecharge.com. Presale tickets for LIFE OF PI are available exclusively to Audience Rewards® members from Monday, October 31, 2022, at 10AM (ET) to Thursday, November 3, 2022, at 9:59AM ET. General on-sale begins Thursday, November 3, 2022, at 10AM (ET).
LIFE OF PI is directed by Max Webster, with Set and Costume design by Olivier Award winner Tim Hatley, Puppet and Movement Direction by Finn Caldwell, Puppet Design by Olivier Award winners Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, Video Design by Olivier Award winner Andrzej Goulding, Lighting Design by Olivier Award winner Tim Lutkin, Sound Design by Carolyn Downing, Original Music by Andrew T Mackay, and Dramaturgy by Jack Bradley. Broadway casting for LIFE OF PI will be announced shortly.
“Having started work seven years ago to bring Yann Martel’s much-loved story to the stage, for it to live on Broadway is enormously gratifying,” said Simon Friend, producer of the Olivier Award-winning Best Play, “LIFE OF PI has been so joyously received by audiences young and old in the UK, which is testament to the skill of the large team of artists delivering a show which entertains, and makes you think and feel in equal measure. We can’t wait to welcome audiences on Broadway.”
“It has been such a privilege to adapt Yann Martel’s modern classic LIFE OF PI for the stage. It was daunting, creatively, exciting, and always collaborative. To be able to tell this story the way I imagined it, to create the world using my references and viewpoint has been an extraordinary gift. And to see it resonate with young and old audience members alike has been humbling,” said playwright Lolita Chakrabarti, “It is a beautiful, visceral, magical show, a story of survival which all of us can fundamentally relate to after the effects of the pandemic. I am beyond thrilled that we will bring this play to Broadway.”
Based on one of the best-loved works of fiction – winner of the Man Booker Prize, selling over fifteen million copies worldwide – LIFE OF PI is a breath-taking new theatrical adaptation of an epic journey of endurance and hope.
After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a sixteen-year-old boy name Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive?
Tickets for LIFE OF PI on Broadway are available at Telecharge.com (212.239.6200) and at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre box office and range from $49 - $199 (including $2 facility fee). The playing schedule for LIFE OF PI is as follows: Tuesday through Saturday at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Please note there will be no 2pm performance on Wednesday, March 15. Beginning Tuesday, April 4, 2023, the LIFE OF PI performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday through Saturday at 8pm, Friday at 7:30pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm.
LIFE OF PI on Broadway is produced by Simon Friend, Daryl Roth, Hal Luftig, Mark Gordon, Playing Field, Tulchin/Bartner Productions, Gavin Kalin, Hunter Arnold, Hall Smalberg Winkler, 42nd.club, Elizabeth Armstrong, Eilene Davidson, Federman Jenen Productions, Susan Gallin, Independent Presenters Network, John Gore Organization, Kuhn Dodani, Harriet Leve, Mary Lu Roffe, Catherine Schreiber, Anthony Tang, Triple Threat Productions, American Repertory Theatre and Sheffield Theatres, with Aaron Lustbader and Hanna Osmolska serving as Executive Producers.
LIFE OF PI is currently playing at Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End where it won five Olivier Awards including Best New Play, Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design. In an historic first for the Olivier Awards, the seven performers who play Royal Bengal tiger ‘Richard Parker’ were collectively awarded Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The London production with its cutting-edge visual effects has garnered great critical acclaim.