Sarah Silverman

Atlantic Theater Company announces 2019-2020 season, including Sarah Silverman's world premiere musical The Bedwetter

Atlantic's 2019-2020 season will also feature world premiere plays by Jack Thorne, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Eboni Booth & Ethan Coen and a US premiere play by Alice Birch.

Tom Millward
Tom Millward

Atlantic Theater Company has today revealed the full line-up for its forthcoming 2019-2020 season at its two Off-Broadway venues - the Linda Gross Theater and Atlantic Stage 2 - including a world premiere musical based on two-time Emmy Award winner Sarah Silverman's bestselling memoir, The Bedwetter.

Here are the details of the forthcoming Atlantic productions in season order:

Kicking off the 2019-2020 season is the world premiere of Sunday, written by Olivier and Tony Award winner Jack Thorne and directed by Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans.

Synopsis: "There is a moment when you want to look ahead to the future, but the past is eating you whole. In Sunday, friends gather for a book group, anxious to prove their intellectual worth, but that anxiety gets the better of any actual discussion as emotional truths come pouring out."

Previews begin at the Linda Gross Theater on September 5, 2019, ahead of an official opening on September 23 and a limited engagement through October 13, 2019.

Next up, Atlantic presents a co-production with LAByrinth Theater Company. The world premiere of Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Obie Award winner John Ortiz, will run at the Linda Gross Theater from November 14 through December 22, 2019, with an official opening set for December 9.

Synopsis: "Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Adly Guirgis takes his style to another level in this world premiere play about the harrowing, humorous, and heartbreaking inner workings of a women's halfway house in New York City."

At Atlantic Stage 2, the 2019-2020 season continues with the off-Broadway playwriting debut of acclaimed actor Eboni Booth. The world premiere of Paris, directed by Knud Adams, will play a limited engagement from January 8 to February 9, 2020, with an official opening on January 21.

Synopsis: "Emmie is one of the only black people living in Paris, Vermont, and she desperately needs a job. When she is hired at Berry's, a store off the interstate selling everything from baby carrots to lawnmowers, she begins to understand a new kind of isolation. A play about invisibility, being underpaid, and how it feels to work on your feet for ten hours a day."

Back at the Linda Gross Theater, the next Atlantic production will be the US premiere of Alice Birch's Anatomy of a Suicide, directed by Obie Award winner Lileana Blain-Cruz.

Synopsis: "Three generations of women. Their lives play out simultaneously. For each, the chaos of what has come before brings a painful legacy. Anatomy of a Suicide is a revelatory exploration of mothers and daughters."

Previews begin on January 30, 2020, ahead of an official opening on February 18 and a limited run through March 15, 2020.

Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated production of the Atlantic season will be the world premiere musical The Bedwetter, which is scheduled to play the Linda Gross Theater from May 9 through June 28, 2020, officially opening on June 10. The tuner features a book by two-time Emmy Award winner Sarah Silverman and Drama Desk Award winner Joshua Harmon, music by Grammy & two-time Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee Adam Schlesinger, and lyrics by Ms. Silverman and Mr. Schlesinger.

Synopsis: "Meet Sarah. She's funny. She's dirty. She's 10. And she's got a secret that you'll never guess (unless you read the title). The Bedwetter is based on the bestselling memoir of the same name."

A director for the musical is yet to be announced.

The final production of the season at Atlantic Stage 2 will be the world premiere of Academy Award winner Ethan Coen's A Play Is A Poem, under the helm of Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe. Previews are set to begin on May 20, 2020, ahead of an official opening on June 1 and a limited run through June 21, 2020.

Synopsis: "If the audience laughs, it's a comedy. If they nod with new understanding, it's a drama. If they laugh and nod but can't say why it's funny or what they've understood, it might be A Play Is A Poem, the new collection of one-acts by Academy Award winner Ethan Coen. The hillbilly hollows of Appalachia, the executive suites of Hollywood, a New York tenement apartment, a magnolia-scented gazebo in Natchez, Mississippi—an eccentric look at life across America."

These one act plays will be presented in association with Center Theatre Group.

In addition, Atlantic has announced the first of its two Atlantic For Kids productions for next season. From September 28 to October 20, 2019, the world premiere musical The Big One-Oh!, will play the Linda Gross Theater under the direction of MK Lawson. The family friendly tuner is based on the book by Dean Pitchford and features music by Doug Besterman, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and a book by Timothy Allen McDonald.

Synopsis: "Charley Maplewood has never been one for parties—that would require friends, which he doesn't have. Well, unless you count his monster friends, but they're only imaginary. But now that he's turning ten—the big one-oh—he decides to throw a birthday party for himself, complete with a "House of Horrors" theme. Of course things don't work out as he plans. Will Charley be able to pull it together before the big one-oh . . . becomes the big OH-NO!?"

A second Atlantic For Kids production, to be presented in spring 2020, will be announced at a later date.

Casting and additional creative team information for all productions of the Atlantic Theater Company 2019-2020 Off-Broadway season will be announced in the coming months.

Originally published on

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