Jesse Eisenberg Discusses His New Off-Broadway Play and Love for Musical Theatre | Playbill

Video Jesse Eisenberg Discusses His New Off-Broadway Play and Love for Musical Theatre The actor-playwright's new drama features Susan Sarandon as a community theatre diva.

Jesse Eisenberg, best known for his starring role in The Social Network, is also a playwright and spoke about his upcoming play on Late Night With Seth Meyers March 11.

“Susan Sarandon plays this woman who is kind of a diva of the New Jersey community theatre scene," he explains. "And this woman who's trying to get her papers for her documentation to become a citizen asks for her help to get married. It’s about immigration, but also musical theatre. It’s peppered with the most obscure musical theatre references—which I thought would not be appealing to anybody until I saw your show [Documentary Now!].

“I love musical theatre,” Eisenberg added. “It's unironic. The show makes fun of musical theatre because you have to because it’s such a silly art form in so many ways.”

And Eisenberg will capitalize on the silly when his show bows at New York City’s Signature Theatre. “The play is called Happy Talk. It references Susan Sarandon’s character: she’s playing Bloody Marry in the Jewish Community Center’s production of South Pacific.” Watch the full interview above.

READ: How to Listen to Plays By Jesse Eisenberg, Lynn Nottage, and More Perform For Free

Eisenberg has written numerous plays including Asuncion, The Revisionist, and The Spoils—all three of which he performed in Off-Broadway.

Asuncion, With Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Bartha, Plays Off-Broadway

 
Recommended Reading:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!