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The Thanksgiving Play on Broadway
The Thanksgiving Play on Broadway Tickets

The Thanksgiving Play on Broadway Tickets

New York
25 Mar 2023 - 11 Jun 2023
Feast on this comedy from Broadway's first female Native American playwright.

The Thanksgiving Play on Broadway Information

Larissa FastHorse becomes the first female Native American playwright on Broadway with The Thanksgiving Play, making its Broadway debut at the Hayes Theater. Get The Thanksgiving Play tickets now. The Thanksgiving Play Broadway tickets are available on New York Theatre Guide.

The Thanksgiving Play on Broadway employs the time-honored theatre trope of a play-within-a-play. But that play-within-a-play is sending up long-held conventions — er, trying to.

What is The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse about?

FastHorse's satire centers on an amateur theatre troupe tasked with creating a Thanksgiving play to perform at an elementary school. Wanting to center the Native American perspective in the story of the holiday, the director hires a Native actress. Only, as they find out too late, she isn't actually Native; like the other three in the group, she's white. Absurdity ensues as the troupe tries to keep their production politically correct and culturally sensitive, and even with the best intentions, there's a whole feast of issues to contend with.

FastHorse, ironically, wrote this play about America during 10 days in Ireland after winning a grant to visit and write at director Tyrone Guthrie's estate there. The Thanksgiving Play then traveled across the pond for workshops and readings in Berkeley, California; Portland, Oregon; and Baltimore, Maryland. Playwrights Horizons presented the world premiere of The Thanksgiving Play in New York, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, in its 2018-2019 Off-Broadway season.

The show's genesis in some ways reflects the plight of its characters, as the four-star The Thanksgiving Play review on New York Theatre Guide notes: "Not being able to get her plays produced, as it required casting Native American actors and the theaters interested in producing her work don't have access to that talent pool (if indeed it does exist at all), Ms. FastHorse charged herself with the exercise of writing a play about the Native American experience without having to cast Native Americans."

Who is Larissa FastHorse?

FastHorse is a choreographer, screenwriter, and playwright whose other plays include Landless, Native Nation, Cow Pie Bingo, and What Would Crazy Horse Do?

Who is in The Thanksgiving Play Broadway cast?

The Thanksgiving Play stars Emmy nominee D'Arcy Carden, known for A League of Their Own and The Good Place, in her Broadway debut. Alongside her is two-time Tony Award winner Katie Finneran (Noises Off; Promises, Promises), two-time Emmy nominee Chris Sullivan (This Is Us), and Scott Foley (Girls on the Bus, The Big Leap, Grey's Anatomy).

Get tickets for The Thanksgiving Play on Broadway now.

(Photos by Joan Marcus)

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Run time

1hr 30min (no intermission)

Opening date

March 25th, 2023

Closing date

June 11th, 2023

Categories

Plays, Broadway, Opening Soon

Venue

Hayes Theater

Cast and creative

By: Larissa FastHorse
Director: Rachel Chavkin
Producer: Second Stage Theater
Cast list: D’Arcy Carden, Katie Finneran, Scott Foley, Chris Sullivan
Design: Riccardo Hernandez
Costumes: Lux Haac
Lighting: Jeanette Oui-Suk Yew
Sound: Mikaal Sulaiman
Other info: Video and projection design by David Bengali

Our review

“On the third day of Thanksgiving, the Natives gave to me four bows and arrows, three Native headdresses …] and a pumpkin in a pumpkin patch.” This parody song begins [The Thanksgiving Play, playwright Larissa FastHorse’s Broadway debut — the first ever for a Native American woman — at Second Stage's Hayes Theater. The song, which FastHorse culled from teacher-oriented Pinterest boards, drags on long enough to make you squirm in fear of hearing the whole thing. Sitting in the mostly white...

Latest The Thanksgiving Play on Broadway News & Features

Four misguided theatre artists create an educational, Native American-centric Thanksgiving pageant. None of them are Indigenous, and they fret so much over getting everything right that they end up getting things very, very wrong. Such is the meat and potatoes of Larissa FastHorse's The Thanksgiving Play, now on Broadway with the starry quartet of D'Arcy Carden, Katie Finneran, Chris Sullivan, and Scott Foley. With its pointed satire of white liberalism, The Thanksgiving Play is designed to make...

D'Arcy Carden is in a good place. No, not The Good Place — though she did play Janet in that hit NBC show and scored an Emmy nomination to boot. She's in a good place in her acting career, following up her sitcom success by starring as Greta Gill on A League of Their Own, the 2022 TV series adapted from the 1992 film of the same name. Now, Carden makes a pilgrimage to New York for her Broadway debut — a dream she's held for years — in Indigenous playwright Larissa FastHorse's The Thanksgiving...

The holiday season is coming early with Larissa FastHorse's The Thanksgiving Play, and that's something to celebrate. This piercing satire follows a makeshift theatre troupe's attempt to create an educational Thanksgiving play. They have to be sure it's elementary school-appropriate, entertaining, and, most importantly, accurate and respectful of Native American perspectives on the holiday. But their major problem — especially regarding that last task — is that all four actors are white. As The...

The Broadway premiere of The Thanksgiving Play has set its cast, and it's something to be thankful for. For this sharp satire, playwright Larissa FastHorse and director Rachel Chavkin have assembled a quartet of celebrated actors with Emmy and Tony honors to their name. Here, D'Arcy Carden, Katie Finneran, Chris Sullivan, and Scott Foley play amateur actors creating an educational Thanksgiving pageant for elementary schoolers. They want to center and uplift Native American voices — but they're...

Feast on this news! Casting has been set for the Broadway premiere of Larissa FastHorse's The Thanksgiving Play, the next production in Second Stage Theater's spring Broadway season. Performances begin March 25 at the Hayes Theater ahead of an April 20 opening. The complete The Thanksgiving Play cast includes Emmy Award nominee D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place, A League of Their Own), two-time Tony winner Katie Finneran (Noises Off; Promises, Promises), Scott Foley (Scandal), and two-time Emmy...