Sanaz Toossi’s “English” won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and put the Iranian playwright and her work on the map. The play first premiered in 2022, in a co-production from Atlantic Theatre Company and Roundabout Theatre Company. On Jan. 23, “English” will officially open at Roundabout’s Todd Haimes Theatre on the Main Stem.
The play marks the Broadway debuts of Toossi, director Knud Adams and the entire cast — Tala Ashe as Elham, Ava Lalezarzadeh as Goli, Pooyah Mohseni as Roya, Marjan Neshat as Marjan and Hadi Tabbal as Omid, all of whom originated their roles Off-Broadway. “It’s a dream come true; it’s our homecoming,” Toossi told Broadway News. “I just look at this cast and think, ‘They belong here. They all belong on Broadway.’”
The cast also expressed their excitement about bringing this story to Broadway, reuniting with the company and getting another go at their characters on the most recent episode of “Broadway Press Day.” “It’s really an opportunity to grow with the work, which you don’t really get a lot of times,” Tabbal said.
Another rarity? A Broadway play about average Iranians, set in Iran, written by an Iranian playwright. Lalezarzadeh lauded the quality of Toossi’s writing, which she noticed even before the play won the Pulitzer. “I read this play in 2019 when I was a senior in college,” the actor recalled. “I got tingles down my whole body.”
Mohseni noted Toossi’s skill in writing about Iranian women, in particular. “These women are written beautifully, and these are characters that are not usually written from that point of view — they’re not somebody else’s side character,” Mohseni said. “They are the heroes of these stories.”
Hear from all of the actors about the characters they play and their connection to these roles in the latest episode of the podcast. Additionally, learn about the genesis of “English” and how Toossi and Adams first met. (Hint: It was in a class taught by two theater giants.)
Listen to the full episode here:
