Photo FeaturesSee Gloria Steinem, Christine Lahti, Fran Lebowitz, More at Opening of Sarah Ruhl's Becky Nurse of Salem
2022 Tony winner Deirdre O’Connell stars Off-Broadway under the direction of Rebecca Taichman.
By
Andrew Gans
December 09, 2022
The Lincoln Center Theater production of Sarah Ruhl's Becky Nurse of Salem officially opened December 4 at Off-Broadway's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.
Rebecca Taichman (Indecent) directs a cast led by Deirdre O'Connell, 2022 Tony winner for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her performance in Dana H.
The dark contemporary comedy follows Becky (O’Connell), a modern-day descendent of accused witch Rebecca Nurse. Becky, who works at the local Salem witch museum, seems to be dogged by bad luck as she looks for love and redemption through spells, pills, and a bartender named Bob (White).
Becky Nurse of Salem has sets by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Emily Rebholz, lighting by Barbara Samuels, sound by Palmer Hefferan, and projections by Tal Yarden. Suzzy Roche is the composer, and Caroline Englander is the stage manager.
Ruhl is also the playwright of How to Transcend a Happy Marriage;The Oldest Boy;In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday; Stage Kiss; Dear Elizabeth; Passion Play, a cycle; Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song.
The Fred Ebb Award recognizes excellence in musical theatre songwriting, by a songwriter or songwriting team that has not yet achieved significant commercial success.