The Lincoln Center Theater production of How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, the newest play from Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl, officially opens March 20 Off-Broadway. Directed by Rebecca Taichman, the production stars Tony Award winner Lena Hall and Oscar winner Marisa Tomei.
Rounding out the cast are Brian Hutchison, David McElwee, Naian González Norvind, Omar Metwally, Austin Smith, and Robin Weigert. Performances began February 23 in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center.
Set in New Jersey, How to Transcend a Happy Marriage sees two couples (Tomei and Metwally, and Weigert and Hutchison) invite a young polyamorous woman, played by Hall, to a dinner party.
“Fascinated, they invite this mysterious woman and her two live-in boyfriends to a New Year’s Eve party, which alters the course of their lives,” read LCT press notes. “How to Transcend a Happy Marriage asks: how much love can a twosome contain? What are the limits of friendship, and what happens when parents who have forgotten their own wildness have a wild rumpus all their own?”
Ruhl’s plays include In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); The Oldest Boy; Dead Man’s Cell Phone; Eurydice; For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Stage Kiss; Dear Elizabeth; Passion Play, a cycle (Pen American Award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Melancholy Play; and Orlando.
How to Transcend a Happy Marriage features sets by David Zinn, costumes by Susan Hilferty, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski, sound by Matt Hubbs, and original music by Todd Almond.
Tickets are available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office, Telecharge.com, and lct.org.
(Updated March 20, 2017)
