Ava Lalezarzadeh left, Tala Ashe RightPhoto: Getty
Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, President/CEO, in memoriam; Scott Ellis, Interim Artistic Director) announces complete casting for the upcoming Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play English by Sanaz Toossi and directed by Knud Adams.
The Broadway premiere of English will feature the original cast from the off-Broadway world premiere: Tala Ashe as “Elham,” Ava Lalezarzadeh as “Goli,” Pooya Mohseni as “Roya,” Marjan Neshat as “Marjan,” and Hadi Tabbal as “Omid.”
The comedy unfolds in an Iranian classroom where adult English learners practice for their proficiency exam. As they leapfrog through a linguistic playground, their wildly different dreams, frustrations, and secrets come to light. Can they overcome the limits of language to discover what they really want to say?
Toossi, Adams as well as the whole cast will be making their Broadway debuts and returning to this production following English’s world premiere co-production between Roundabout Theatre Company and Atlantic Theater Company in 2022. A NY Times Critics Pick, Jesse Green said: “the cast is uniformly excellent” and David Finkle for New York Stage Review noted this “smart cast, under Knud Adams’ smart direction.” Naveen Kumar for New York Theatre Guide said “English is both a buoyant comedy of communication and a subtle but probing exploration of what it means to speak out loud and feel understood. That one play can accomplish as much with wit, ease, precision, and heart, as English does in a swift 115 minutes, makes it among the best new plays of the season.” In addition to Toossi winning the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this production won the 2023 Obie Award for Best New American Play.
English will begin preview performances on Friday, January 3, 2025, and open officially on Thursday, January 23, 2025, at the Todd Haimes Theatre (227 West 42nd Street) on Broadway. This is a limited engagement for 66 performances only through Sunday, March 2, 2025. The creative team for English includes: Marsha Ginsberg (Set Design), Enver Chakartash (Costume Design), Reza Behjat (Lighting Design), and Sinan Refik Zafar (Sound Design).
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for English are currently available by calling 212.719.1300, online at roundabouttheatre.org, or in person at the Todd Haimes Theatre (227 West 42nd Street). For groups of 10 or more please call 212-719-9393 x 365 or email groupsales@roundabouttheatre.org.