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The Lifespan of a Fact to Feature Broadway's First All-Female Design Team
The Lifespan of a Fact to Feature Broadway's First All-Female Design Team

The Lifespan of a Fact to Feature Broadway’s First All-Female Design Team

The Lifespan of a Fact, the new play by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, and based on the book written by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal, is making Broadway history. The production, set to open October 18, 2018, will feature Broadway’s first all-female design team.

Mimi Lien, who created the atmospheric sets for Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, will provide the production’s set design. Costume design will come from Linda Cho who crafted the ornate period wear for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Jen Schriever, celebrated lighting designer for Eclipsed, will, once again, work her magic. Rounding out the team will be the sound design of Palmer Hefferan (Sugar in Our Wounds) and projection design by Lucky Mackinnon (Six Degrees of Separation).

Set to star Daniel Radcliffe (Equus, The Cripple of Inishmaan), Cherry Jones (The HeiressDoubt) and Bobby Cannavale (The Motherf**ker with the HatMauritius), The Lifespan of a Fact is inspired by John D’Agata’s essay, “What Happens There,” about the Las Vegas suicide of teenager Levi Presley. Jim Fingal, assigned to fact-check the piece, ignited a seven-year debate on the blurred lines of what passes for truth in literary non-fiction.

“Jim Fingal (Daniel Radcliffe) has a small job: to fact-check articles for one of the best magazines in the country. Jim Fingal’s boss (Cherry Jones) has given him a big assignment: apply his skill to a groundbreaking piece by legendary author John D’Agata (Bobby Cannavale). And now, Jim Fingal has a huge problem: John made up some of his article. Well, a lot of his article. OK, actually, maybe the majority of it? What starts professional quickly becomes profane as one question rises to the surface: Can Jim Fingal ever just shut the fact up?”

The production will begin previews on September 20, 2018, prior to an opening night October 18, 2018. Director Leigh Silverman, who assembled the all-female design team, will helm the production as director. Though it is being performed at Studio 54, this production of The Lifespan of a Fact is not a Roundabout Theatre Company production.

Mark Robinson is the author of the two-volume encyclopedia The World of Musicals and maintains a theater and entertainment blog at markrobinsonwrites.com.

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