Roundabout Theatre Company Artistic Director Todd Haimes has announced that star of stage and screen Debra Messing will come to Broadway in 2020 in a production of Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles. The play will be Messing’s return to the Broadway stage, having last appearing on the Great White Way in John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar. Birthday Candles will begin preview performances on Thursday, April 2 and open officially on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. This is a limited engagement through Sunday, June 21, 2020, at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway.
Messing will play 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? Noah Haidle makes his Broadway debut with a poignant new play as fearless in scope as it is tremendous in heart.”
Particularly well-known for her Emmy-winning role as Grace Adler on the hit situation comedy Will & Grace, Messing will also be familiar to audiences for her starring performances on such TV series as Smash and The Starter Wife. Her film appearances include The Wedding Date, Searching, Along Came Polly, The Mothman Prophecies, The Women, A Walk in the Clouds, and Purple Violets.
Further casting and other details about Birthday Candles will be announced soon.
Mark Robinson is the author of the two-volume encyclopedia The World of Musicals, The Disney Song Encyclopedia, and The Encyclopedia of Television Theme Songs. He maintains a theater and entertainment blog at markrobinsonwrites.com.