Dear friend,
Welcome to the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s I Need That at the American Airlines Theatre. I Need That is a Roundabout commission and one of three world premieres on our stages this fall, representing our commitment to new work both off and on Broadway. This is the last Roundabout season curated by Roundabout’s longtime leader and my dear friend, the late Todd Haimes, and the first I’m presenting to you as Interim Artistic Director.
As the adage goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Nobody knows this better than the characters who inhabit I Need That. For Sam, Foster, and Amelia, it takes significant bravery to move beyond the things—both physical and metaphorical—they think they need to survive. It is their challenge to learn to reconnect, to open themselves to the outside world, and to stop relying on the objects and memories that tie them to the past.
We are thrilled to produce another premiere from Theresa on the American Airlines Stage after Bernhardt/Hamlet in 2018, and we are excited that her frequent collaborator Moritz von Stuelpnagel is back to direct her work at our theatre. It is also my great joy that Danny DeVito is returning to our stage after his Tony Award®-nominated performance in 2017’s The Price, this time alongside his daughter Lucy. She’s making her Broadway debut, in this new play that Theresa wrote especially for the two of them. It’s great to see the DeVitos taking to heart our feeling that Roundabout is a family.
Thank you for joining us at I Need That. I ask you to share your thoughts on this production and our whole season by emailing me at ArtisticOffice@roundabouttheatre.org.
Sincerely,
Scott Ellis
Interim Artistic Director