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Birthday Candles Cast
Birthday Candles Cast

Birthday Candles Starring Debra Messing Announces Full Broadway Cast

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) announced today complete casting of the New York premiere of Birthday Candles by Noah Haidle, directed by Vivienne Benesch.

Tony Award nominee John Earl Jelks as Matt/William will join the previously announced Emmy Award winner Debra Messing as Ernestine, and Enrico Colantoni as Kenneth, with Crystal Finn as Joan/Alex/Beth, Susannah Flood as Alice/Madeline/Ernie, and Christopher Livingston as Billy/John.

An award-winning television star, Debra Messing was last seen on Broadway in John Patrick Shanley’s play Outside Mullingar opposite Brían F. O’Byrne. Enrico Colantoni makes his Broadway debut this season; he most recently appeared in HBO Max’s Station Eleven and Nat Geo’s The Hot Zone: Anthrax and opposite Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. John Earl Jelks was last seen on Broadway in Sweat by Lynn Nottage and received a Tony Award nomination for his work in Radio Golf by August Wilson. Roundabout Theatre Company welcomes the return of Crystal Finn who has appeared in the Roundabout Underground productions of Kingdom Come and Bobbie Clearly, and Christopher Livingston who appeared in the Underground production of Something Clean. Susannah Flood returns to Roundabout after most recently appearing in The Cherry Orchard on Broadway.

Birthday Candles will begin preview performances on Friday, March 18, 2022 and open officially on Sunday, April 10, 2022. This is a limited engagement through Sunday, May 29, 2022 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway.

Debra Messing returns to the stage as Ernestine Ashworth, who spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it’s her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, dozens of goldfish, an infinity of dreams, one cake baked over a century. What makes a lifetime…into a life? A writer of “freewheeling ambition” (Charles Isherwood, The New York Times), Noah Haidle makes his Broadway debut with a poignant new play as fearless in scope as it is tremendous in heart.

Learn More About Birthday Candles