Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) has revealed casting for its production of “Eureka Day.” Anna D. Shapiro will direct the previously announced Jonathan Spector comedy, set to begin previews on Nov. 25 ahead of a newly announced opening night of Dec. 16. “Eureka Day” will be the first Main Stem production of MTC’s 2024-25 season.
The cast will include Tony winner Bill Irwin, Tony Award nominees Amber Gray and Jessica Hecht and Emmy Award nominee Thomas Middleditch, with Zoë Chao.
Irwin won a Tony for his leading turn as George the 2005 revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” He has the unique distinction of being a four-time Tony nominee for one production, receiving nods as playwright, director, choreographer and star of 1989’s “Largely New York.”
A Tony nominee for her featured turn as Persephone in 2019’s “Hadestown,” Gray recently originated the role of Claudia in the 2023 Off-Broadway mounting of Stephen Sondheim and David Ives’ “Here We Are.” Gray made her Broadway debut in 2016’s “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.”
Hecht’s most recent Broadway outing was a performance as Alice in MTC’s “Summer, 1976,” which earned her a 2023 Tony nomination. Hecht was previously Tony-nominated for her featured turn as Beatrice in the 2010 revival of “A View From the Bridge.”
“Eureka Day” will mark the Broadway debut of Middleditch. A 2016 Emmy nominee for his turn as Richard Hendricks in the HBO series “Silicon Valley,” he co-starred, opposite Ben Schwartz, in Netflix’s first improv special, “Middleditch and Schwartz.”
Chao will make her inaugural Main Stem appearance in “Eureka Day.” She has appeared in the films “If You Were Last” and “Your Place or Mine.”
In the California-set “Eureka Day,” an outbreak of mumps forces a private elementary school to challenge its own liberal vaccination policy.
The play’s full creative team will be announced.
“Eureka Day” is being produced by MTC, under the leadership of artistic director Lynne Meadow and executive director Chris Jennings, by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, Wagner Johnson Productions and Seaview.
