Lileana Blain-Cruz

Thornton Wilder's 'The Skin of Our Teeth' to be revived on Broadway this spring

Lileana Blain-Cruz will make her Broadway directorial debut with the production.

Gillian Russo
Gillian Russo

Lincoln Center Theater will produce Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Skin of Our Teeth on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, beginning performances March 31, 2022 ahead of an April 25 opening night. The play is set in Excelsior, New Jersey, and follows the Antrobus family as they experience an Ice Age, a biblical flood, and war.

The Skin of Our Teeth first premiered on Broadway in 1942 and has been revived twice since, in 1955 and 1975. It was last seen on the New York stage in 2017, when Arin Arbus directed it for Theatre for a New Audience and won an Obie Award for her work.

Lileana Blain-Cruz, resident director of LCT, will direct the upcoming production, marking her Broadway debut.

"It's a title that has been in my consciousness for a long time and while searching for the perfect play with which to make my Beaumont debut I re-read it," Blain-Cruz said in a statement. "I was so deeply moved by Thornton Wilder's story of a family going through apocalypse after apocalypse, over, and over, and over again — and the urgency to get back up and try again."

The creative team includes set designer Adam Rigg, costume designer Montana Levi Blanco, lighting designer Yi Zhao, sound designer Palmer Hefferan, and projection designer Hannah Wasileski, all of whom are making their Beaumont debuts. Casting has yet to be announced.

Prior to The Skin of Our Teeth, the Beaumont will house the premiere of Tom Kitt and James Lapine's new musical Flying Over Sunset, which will begin performances November 11. That production is playing a limited engagement through February 6, 2022.

The Skin of Our Teeth tickets will be on sale soon.

Originally published on

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