Straight Line Crazy

The actor Ralph Fiennes, a white man, stands leaning with both hands on a draftsman's table. He is in costume as Robert Moses, wearing khaki pants, suspenders, and a blue gray blue tie. In the background are two other actors dressed similarly looking toward him. — *Straight Line Crazy*, Presented by The Shed and London Theatre Company, The Shed, New York, October 18 – December 18, 2022. Photo: Kate Glicksberg.

Presented by The Shed and London Theatre Company

Directed by Nicholas Hytner and Jamie Armitage

about the play

“Ralph Fiennes is glorious as an unstoppable Robert Moses.”
—The New York Times

Following an acclaimed run this spring at the Bridge Theatre in London, Straight Line Crazy, a new play by David Hare, will have its exclusive US engagement this fall at The Shed. Starring Ralph Fiennes as Robert Moses and directed by Nicholas Hytner and Jamie Armitage, the play delves into Moses’s questionable legacy and enduring impact on New York City. For 40 uninterrupted years, Moses was considered among the most powerful men in New York as he envisioned and built public works whose aftereffects determine how New Yorkers experience the city to this day. The play presents an imagined retelling of the arc of Moses’s controversial career in two decisive moments: his rise to power in the late 1920s and the public outcry against the corrosive effects of that power in the mid-1950s.

Hare’s play exposes Moses’s iron will, which exploited weaknesses in the state and city governments as he worked to remake public space. Though never elected to political office, he manipulated those who were through a mix of guile, charm, and intimidation. Motivated at first by a determination to improve the lives of New York City’s working class, he created new parks, new bridges, and 627 miles of expressway to connect the people to the great outdoors. However, Moses often achieved these public works at the expense of disempowered New Yorkers, particularly people of color, living in the way of and near his projects. In the 1950s, groups of citizens began to organize against his schemes and the prioritization of cars over public transportation, campaigning for a very different idea of what a city should be.

Learn more about the play and its contexts with additional resources

Cast

David Bromley

Nemuna Ceesay

Al Coppola

Ralph Fiennes

Andrew Lewis

Alana Maria

Courtesy Guy Paul.

Guy Paul

Krysten Peck

Jennifer Regan

Courtesy Judith Roddy.

Judith Roddy

Adam Silver

Mary Stillwaggon Stewart

Danny Webb

David Bromley’s theater credits include Straight Line Crazy for The Bridge Theatre; No Villain for the Old Red Lion and Trafalgar Studios; and 1938 – Hitler Takes Vienna, Without Reluctance and Without Relief, and Boris Godunov, all for the Ballast Theatre Company. His television credits include Harlots, Doctors, and The Tunnel, and his film credits include Tolkien, How to Stop a Recurring Dream, Poor Thing, and Holmes and Watson.

Nemuna Ceesay (she/her/hers) is an actor/director/educator based in New York. Selected acting credits include Second Stage, Two River Theater, CalShakes, Joe’s Pub, PlayMakers Rep, Woolly Mammoth, A.R.T., The Public Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Selected TV credits include Bull, Broad City, Instinct, Younger, FBI, Prodigal Son, and Katy Keene. Ceesay is the associate director of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award–winning A Strange Loop on Broadway and the founder of an all-BIPOC training program called The Blueprint. She received an MFA in acting from American Conservatory Theater. Follow her on Instagram @nemuna and @theblueprintartist. You can also visit her website, nemunarceesay.com, and learn more about The Blueprint at theblueprintartist.com.

Al Coppola most recently starred in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre. Further theatre credits include Straight Line Crazy and Bach & Sons for The Bridge, The Importance of Being Earnest for the Barn Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Split Second Productions, and Sonnet Walk, Journey’s End, and Macbeth for Guildford Shakespeare Company. Television credits include BBC’s Holby City.

Ralph Fiennes has enjoyed an extensive career acting in theater, film, and television as well as producing and directing film. His last stage appearance was in T. S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets at The Pinter Theatre, which followed a national tour of the UK. Prior to that he appeared in Beat the Devil by David Hare at the Bridge Theatre, directed by Nicholas Hytner. Both productions were performed under Covid social distancing rules. Fiennes was previously directed by Hytner as Edmund in King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His many other theater credits include Hamlet, Ivanov, Richard II, and Coriolanus for the Almeida, and Antony and Cleopatra, Man and Superman, Richard III, The Master Builder, God of Carnage, and Faith Healer. His many film credits include Schindler’s List, The English Patient, The Constant Gardener, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and the roles of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films and M in Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time To Die. He has also directed three feature films: Coriolanus, The Invisible Woman, and The White Crow. Fiennes’s recent films include The King’s Man, The Dig, and The Forgiven. Forthcoming films include The Menu and Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

Andrew Lewis was born to an Army officer and a primary school teacher. He started performing at school and had an early passion for mime. He began professionally at the Edinburgh Festival in 1981 as a street performer and was offered his first theatre role on his return. He worked with Edward Bond and started a theatre company with Ian Rickson, before joining the Half Moon Theatre in East London.

His theater credits include Royal Shakespeare Company, Antic Disposition, Buried Child at the Trafalgar Studios with Ed Harris, The Deep Blue Sea with Helen McCrory, Network with Bryan Cranston at The National Theatre, Machinal with Emily Berrington at the Almeida Theatre, and most recently touring The Da Vinci Code with Nigel Harman and Danny John-Jules. Lewis has toured the world twice with Walking With Dinosaurs, the Arena Spectacular, playing the lead role of Huxley. Feature films include The Man With The Iron Heart and Unhallowed Ground. Short films include Chasing Faces and King To Castle. His TV credits include Holby City (10 seasons), Eastenders, and Doctors (BBC TV). He has recently recorded a podcast, Film, Once It’s Begun.

Alana Maria (pronounced ah-LAY-nuh) started her career as a singer/songwriter of dance music in the early ’90s and had two #1 tracks on the Billboard Dance/Club Charts. She moved to England in the late ’90s and began her acting career, appearing in various West End productions such as The Blues Brothers at The Whitehall, 125th Street at The Shaftesbury, and The Colored Museum at the V&A Museum. Some of her screen works include Avenue 5, Deep State, Until Death, and Doctor Who. As well as acting for screen and stage, Maria’s voice can be heard voicing characters in video games and audio books. She is happy to be here reprising her role as “Shirley Hayes” in this production of Straight Line Crazy.

Guy Paul’s Broadway credits include Mary Stuart, King Lear, The Invention of Love, The King and I, Twelve Angry Men, and 1776. Off-Broadway credits include Stuff Happens (Public Theatre), Meet John Doe, Candida, Cowardy Custard, J.B., The Flight of the Earls, The Oresteia, and Frankenstein. In London’s West End his credits include Death of a Salesman for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Boa at Trafalgar Studios. US regional credits include Geva Theatre Center, Ford’s Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, Globe Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and three seasons with the Guthrie Theatre. TV credits include Patrick Melrose, Father Brown, Black Sails, Life on Mars, The Sopranos, Law & Order, George Washington: The Forging of a Nation, and Courage the Cowardly Dog. Film credits include Patrick Melrose, The Sense of an Ending, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Fifth Estate, Hyde Park on Hudson, and the upcoming Indiana Jones 5.

Krysten Peck is an artist born and raised on the East Coast. She ran off to London in 2019 to pursue a life of drama, mainly as a student at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Just three months after graduating from drama school, she landed the recurring role of Erika on season two of the hit UK show TRACES, which premiered February 2022 (UKTV). She now splits her time between London and New York City and is very excited to make her Off-Broadway debut in Straight Line Crazy.

Jennifer Regan’s credits include, on Broadway: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Born Yesterday; West End: The Lady from Dubuque; Off-Broadway: How I Learned to Drive (Second Stage), Buffalo Gal (Primary Stages), Pig Farm (Roundabout), Winning (Rattlestick). Regional work includes Girls (Yale Rep); Sweat (Huntington Theater); An Octoroon and Troublemaker (Berkeley Rep); Twelfth Night (Hartford Stage); and Lost in Yonkers, Resurrection Blues, and The Trojan Women (Old Globe). Regan has had recurring roles on The Heartshe Holler and Neon Joe: Werewolf Hunter (Adult Swim) and on Law & Order: SVU. Guest appearances include FBI: Most Wanted, God Friended Me, Elementary, Blindspot, and Happyish. Regan’s film credits include The Good Nurse (Netflix), The Humbling, My Dead Boyfriend, The Normals, and The Winning Season.

Judith Roddy’s theater credits include The Visiting House (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Translations (National Theatre), Sam Shepard Tribute (Royal Court Theatre), Knives in Hens (Donmar Warehouse), The Plough and the Stars (National Theatre), The Seagull (Pan Pan), Pentecost (The Lyric Theatre), and The Silver Tassie (National Theatre). Television credits include Manhunt II (ITV), Darklands, (Parallel Films), Rig 45 (Subotica), Derry Girls (Hat Trick), The Fall (BBC), Love is the Drug (RTÉ), and Over the Wall (BBC). Film includes The Cry of Granuaile, Out of Innocence, and Dead Long Enough.

Adam Silver was born and raised in Chicago, where he began his career, and spent a decade in Los Angeles before relocating to London. He plays Lt. David Solomon in Masters of the Air, the follow-up to Band of Brothers and The Pacific from executive producers Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg, streaming soon on Apple TV+. He plays Howard in Debora Cahn’s new series The Diplomat and Charles in Benioff & Weiss’s new series The Three-Body Problem, both streaming soon on Netflix. Theatre credits include the west coast premieres of Exit Strategy, Hit the Wall, Sons of the Prophet, and Stupid Fucking Bird; the Los Angeles premiere of Nerve; the world premieres of Creation, Fact & Fiction, and Sleeping Giant; the German premiere of Bad Jews; as well as extensive Chicago credits. Television credits include Transparent, Masters of Sex, NCIS, Community, Wedding Band, Torchwood, Superstore, and The Great Indoors. Film credits include Black Hat, Marla, The Runaways, and Velvet Buzzsaw.

Mary Stillwaggon Stewart’s UK theater credits include Straight Line Crazy (Bridge Theatre), An Enemy of the People (Union Theatre), The Glass Protégé (Park Theatre), Talk(Over) (Arcola Theatre), The Remains (Canal Cafe Theatre), The Fat Man’s Wife (Albany Theatre), Don Loco (Tristan Bates Theatre), and Sleeping Beauty (Kenton Theatre). NYC theater credits include Machinal (Lincoln Center Lab), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Circle in the Square), Bender Gender Straight and Neutered (Transport Group), Alcestis, Five Women Waiting (Manhattan Theatre Source), and Dear Brutus (Wings Theatre). US regional credits include I Capture the Castle (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey) and Taming of the Shrew, Coriolanus, Pericles, King Lear, The Tempest, and Pirates of Penzance (Virginia Shakespeare Festival). TV and film credits include Archie, The Crown, Berlin Station, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Boardwalk Empire.

Danny Webb’s recent credits include reprising his role in the second series of Pennyworth, prior to which he shot the feature film The Dig for Netflix. Alongside his acclaimed performance in King Lear co-starring with Ian McKellan in London’s West End, Webb’s other stage credits include the title role in the world tour of Hamlet, and, for the West End, Art and Death and the Maiden. Other stage credits include Welcome Home, Captain Fox! for the Donmar, and The Seagull, directed by Matthew Dunstler for Regent’s Park Open Air. Film credits include Never Grow Old, Alien 3, Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos for Lionsgate/BBC, Valkyrie, and Residue directed by Alex Gardia for Matador Pictures. TV credits include The City & the City and SS-GB, both for the BBC One; Liar and The Halcyon, both for ITV; and Humans for Channel 4.

David Hare is one of the UK’s most internationally performed playwrights. Eighteen of his plays have been seen on and off Broadway, including Plenty, The Secret Rapture, Via Dolorosa, Amy’s View, Stuff Happens, The Vertical Hour, and the Tony-winning Skylight. He has twice been nominated for Oscars for his screenplays for The Hours and The Reader. In the last decade he has written three original television series: The Worricker Trilogy, which starred Bill Nighy; Collateral, with Carey Mulligan; and Roadkill, with Hugh Laurie. In 1998, he was knighted for services to the British theater.

Nicholas Hytner is co-founder of London Theatre Company and was director of the National Theatre from 2003 to 2015. At the Bridge Theatre, he has directed Young Marx, Julius Caesar, Allelujah!, Alys, Always, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Two Ladies, Beat the Devil, A Christmas Carol, Bach & Sons, The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage, The Southbury Child (also at Chichester Festival Theatre), and John Gabriel Borkman. Next year, he will direct an immersive production of Guys & Dolls. At the National Theatre, his productions included Henry V, His Dark Materials, The History Boys, Stuff Happens, Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, The Habit of Art, England People Very Nice, Much Ado About Nothing, One Man, Two Guvnors, Hamlet, Carousel, The Wind in the Willows, The Madness of George III, Timon of Athens, and Othello. In the West End: the original production of Miss Saigon. He was executive producer of the 2020 series of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads (BBC One), of which he also directed three episodes. His films include The Madness of King George, The History Boys, and The Lady in the Van. He has won three Olivier awards, three Tony awards and a BAFTA.

Jamie Armitage is the co-director of SIX: The Musical, which is currently playing in London, New York, and on tour in the UK and Australia. He is a resident director at the Almeida Theatre and was an artistic associate at the King’s Head Theatre (2019 – 21). Directing credits include Southern Belles, a Tennessee Williams double bill at King’s Head Theatre; Spring Awakening and Sweeney Todd at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; Love Me Now at Tristan Bates Theatre; Spoonface Steinberg at Edinburgh Fringe; Richard II at Emmanuel Chapel; and Cambridge, Robin Hood, and Henry IV, Part 1 at ADC Theatre.

Bob Crowley’s theater credits include, recently, Alys Always, My Name is Lucy Barton, and Allelujah! for The Bridge; The Inheritance at the Young Vic, in the West End, and on Broadway; Sing Street for New York Theatre Workshop; The Moderate Soprano in the West End; An American in Paris on Broadway, in London and Paris; Skylight in London and on Broadway; Aladdin for Disney in Toronto and on Broadway; The Glass Menagerie for American Repertory Theatre, USA, and on Broadway; The Audience in London and on Broadway; Once in London, on Broadway and US tour; and The Dark Earth and the Light Sky at the Almeida.

He has designed many productions for the National Theatre including People, Pinocchio, Travelling Light, Collaborators, King James Bible, Juno and the Paycock (also at the Abbey, Dublin), The Habit of Art, The Power of Yes, Phèdre, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Gethsemane, i (which he also co-directed with Tony Harrison), The History Boys (also on Broadway), His Girl Friday, and Mourning Becomes Electra; more than 25 productions for the RSC, including Les Liaisons Dangereuses and The Plantagenets; and for the Donmar Warehouse: Into the Woods and Orpheus Descending.

Other theater includes Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward, on UK tour and on Broadway; Disney’s Aida on Broadway; Disney’s Tarzan (which he also directed) on Broadway, in Germany and the Netherlands; The Year of Magical Thinking on Broadway and at the National Theatre; The Coast of Utopia in New York; Carousel in New York; The Seagull at the Public Theater, New York; Paul Simon’s The Capeman and The Sweet Smell of Success.

Opera and ballet designs include Strapless, The Winter’s Tale, Pavane, Anastasia, The Knot Garden, La traviata, and Alice in Wonderland at the Royal Opera House; Great Scott at Dallas Opera; Don Carlos at the Metropolitan Opera; and The Cunning Little Vixen at le Châtelet.

Film credits include Othello, Tales from Hollywood starring Jeremy Irons and Alec Guinness, Suddenly Last Summer directed by Richard Eyre and starring Maggie Smith, and costume design for the film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder.

Among Crowley’s awards are seven Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, the Royal Designer for Industry Award, and Robert LB Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Design at the TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards in New York.

George Dennis’s theater credits include Blues for an Alabama Sky, Nine Night, An Octoroon (National Theatre); The Seagull, Sweat, The Homecoming (Olivier Award nomination for Best Sound Design), The Importance of Being Earnest, A Slight Ache & The Dumb Waiter, The Lover & The Collection (West End); The Southbury Child and A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi and Three Sisters (Almeida Theatre); Venice Preserved (Royal Shakespeare Company); Mary Stuart and The Beacon (Staatstheater Stuttgart); Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe); and Harrogate, Fireworks, and Liberian Girl (Royal Court).

George Fenton works in film, theater, and television and has frequently adapted music for scores, notably Handel for The Madness of King George and Vivaldi and Bach for Dangerous Liaisons. Recent work in film includes The United Way, The Duke, and The Secret: Dare to Dream. Other films include Cry Freedom, Shadowlands, The Fisher King, Groundhog Day, You’ve Got Mail, Hitch, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, I, Daniel Blake, and The Lady in the Van. Television credits include The Jewel in the Crown, The Monocled Mutineer, Talking Heads, Life, and many themes including Shoestring, Bergerac, BBC News, Newsnight, and On the Record, also The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and The Frozen Planet. He conducts the “Planet” scores in concert with orchestras worldwide. Fenton’s theater credits include Visit from an Unknown Woman, The Smoking Diaries, Collaborators, Untold Stories, Mrs. Henderson Presents, and at the Bridge Theatre, Allelujah!, Talking Heads, and Beat the Devil.

Jessica Hung Han Yun’s theater credits include The Glow, Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (original designer), Living Newspaper Edition 7, and Pah-La (from Abbey Dublin) at the Royal Court; The Mirror and the Light for the RSC in the West End; Anna X at the Lowry and West End; Out West at the Lyric Hammersmith; Inside at the Orange Tree; The Band Plays On and She Loves Me at Sheffield; Dick Whittington at the National Theatre; Blindness at the Donmar Warehouse; Rockets and Blue Lights at Royal Exchange Manchester; Level Up at the Bush; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for English Theatre, Frankfurt; Faces in the Crowd, Mephisto, Dear Elizabeth, and The Human Voice at the Gate; Equus at Theatre Royal Stratford East/ETT/Trafalgar Studios/UK Tour; Armadillo at the Yard; Reasons To Stay Alive at Sheffield Theatres/ETT/UK Tour; One (Home/UK Tour/International Tour); Forgotten (Moongate/New Earth/Arcola/Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Hive City Legacy (Hot Brown Honey/Roundhouse); Snowflake at the Kiln (from Fire Station Oxford); Fairview at the Young Vic; Cuckoo at the Soho; Nine foot nine (Bunker/Edinburgh Festival Fringe); and Becoming Shades (VAULT Festival).

Work in dance includes HOME (Rambert2) and installations include Winter Light commissioned by the Museum of the Home. Awards include a Knight of Illumination Award for Plays and an Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design (Equus).

Robert Sterne’s theater casting includes Bach & Sons, Talking Heads, A Number, Two Ladies, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridge (London); Don Juan in Soho and The Audience in the West End; and many productions for Sheffield Crucible Theatres. Television credits include The Crown, Chernobyl, Game of Thrones, The Serpent, Wolf Hall, London Spy, and Friday Night Dinner.

Campbell Young & Associates’ credits include, on Broadway: The Devil Wears Prada (Chicago), A Beautiful Noise (Boston), Funny Girl, Music Man, Head Over Heels, Hello Dolly!, and Carousel; Broadway/West End: To Kill A Mockingbird, Company, A Christmas Carol, Tina – Tina Turner Musical (Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Wig and Hair Design), Matilda, and Ghost; West End: Back To the Future, Cinderella, and Leopoldstadt; and Film/TV: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Downton Abbey (movie).

Benita de Wit is a New York-based Australian director and the resident director for SIX: The Musical on Broadway. Previous credits include The Moors (Theatre Row), The Laramie Project (Pace University), Slaughterhouse (Belvoir St Theatre), Razorhurst (Hayes Theatre Co), Salty (Access Theatre), and Bat out of Hell (New York City Center, US & UK tours, associate director). They have directed multidisciplinary projects with new music collective Kinds of Kings, a music video for Tenderheart Bitches, and two documentary projects with Long Island University. They have an MFA in directing from Columbia University and are on faculty at Circle in the Square Theatre School.

Jaimie Todd studied at Wimbledon. Todd’s credits include Disgraced, The Royale, Perseverance Drive, and Christmas Is Miles Away (Bush Theatre); The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek and Pretend You Have Big Buildings (Royal Exchange Theatre); Be My Baby (Salisbury Playhouse); and Rabbit (Trafalgar Studios). Associate work includes Collaborators, Phèdre, People, Juno and the Paycock, Travelling Light, The Hard Problem, and The Power of Yes; The Audience, Orpheus Descending, The Dark Earth and The Light Sky, Aladdin, and The Inheritance (West End, Broadway, and Los Angeles); The Glass Menagerie, La Belle Sauvage, Straight Line Crazy, and Billy Elliot (West End); and Anastasia, Strapless, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, and Like Water for Chocolate (Royal Opera House).

Mextly Couzin’s (she/ella) recent credits include working on Broadway: Birthday Candles (associate lighting director, Roundabout); Off-Broadway: Peerless (Primary Stages), 53% OF (Second Stage), Quince (The Bushwick Starr), Which Way To the Stage (MCC), Tambo and Bones (Playwrights Horizons & CTG), Kimberly Akimbo, Sunday (Atlantic Theatre Company, ALD), Temporary Occupant, The Woman’s Party (Clubbed Thumb), and Indecent (Juilliard School); and regionally: Opera Parallèle, The Old Globe, Repertory Theatre St. Louis, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Symphony, and Malashock Dance Company. Couzin received her MFA from University of California, San Diego in 2020.

Patrick Lachance is a New York City-based sound designer and associate. Previous audio work at The Shed includes Open Call (2019), ARCA: Mutant;Faith, and Tomás Saraceno: Particular Matter(s). Select associate design credits include Kiss Me Kate (sound designer Brian Ronan), The Little Foxes, Present Laughter, and Blackbird (sound designer Fitz Patton), The Children (sound designer Max Pappenheim), and national tours of Finding Neverland, Amazing Grace, The Sound of Music, and ELF the Musical (sound designer Shannon Slaton). Lachance is the audio and lighting supervisor at Little Island, where he has had the privilege of supporting the work of a range of artists including PigPen Theatre Co., Tina Landau, Michael McElroy, Ayodele Casel, Seth Meyers, Broadway for Racial Justice, Arturo O’Farrill, Michael Thurber, Jon Sands, and many more.

Helen Johnson’s training includes the University of Bristol and the BBC. She has worked at the Royal Opera House (ROH), National Theatre, English National Ballet (ENB), and English National Opera (ENO). Recent work includes Lyssa at the ROH; Under Milk Wood, Follies (Olivier Award for Costume), The Hard Problem, and London Road at the National Theatre; Sing Street for New York Theatre Workshop; The Snow Queen for Tivoli Ballet and HRH Queen Margerethe of Denmark; The Inheritance at the Young Vic and on Broadway (Tony nomination for best costumes); Song of the Earth/La Sylphide and Giselle for ENB; Wozzeck for Lyric Opera Chicago; Chroma for Danish Royal Ballet; Infra for Polish National Ballet; We’re Here Because We’re Here for 14-18 Now; The Haunting Of Hill House at the Everyman Liverpool; Sinatra at the London Palladium; Between Worlds for ENO; Cosí Fan Tutte for ENO/Metropolitan Opera; Die Frau Ohne Schatten at ROH; The Same Deep Water as Me at the Donmar Warehouse; The Steadfast Tin Soldier and Nutcracker for Tivoli Ballet Copenhagen; Written on Skin for Festival d’Aix en Provence/ROH; The Yellow Wallpaper at the Schaubühne Berlin; Carmen for Salzburg Opera Festival; and Onegin for ENO/Metropolitan Opera.

Cynthia Cahill’s New York credits include, on Broadway: The Lehman Trilogy, Derren Brown: Secret, Lifespan of a Fact: JUNK, and Passing Strange; and Off- Broadway: The Park Avenue Armory, Second Stage, The Public Theatre, The Vineyard, The Atlantic Theatre, and The Culture Project. National tours include King Lear (London’s Globe Theatre) and Tristan & Yseult (Kneehigh Theatre Company). Regional credits include Arena Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, Guthrie Theater, The McCarter, Hartford Stage, The Folger Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Broad Stage, and Lookingglass Theatre Company, including more than 18 seasons at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Alison R. Simone was last seen backstage at Shakespeare Theater Company working on Our Town and the co-production of The Merchant of Venice with Theatre for a New Audience. Previously, Simone enjoyed working as the stage manager on the 10th-anniversary production of Rock of Ages at New World Stages. Simone is a proud AEA member and MFA graduate of Columbia University. She is thrilled to be making her Shed debut.

Nik Haffenden and Chloe Forestier-Walker, Deputy Stage Managers, UK
Just Just, Assistant Lighting Designer
Jonny Pascoe, Production Manager, UK
Luke Simcock, Costume Coordinator
Micah Zucker, Head Audio
Maytté Martinez, Head Lighting
Kathrine R. Mitchell, Lighting Programmer
Josh Galitzer, Head Carpenter
Tom Ambrosino, Amanda Blohm, and Juan Peguero, Deck Crew
Ann Comanar, Head Wardrobe
Andrae Gonzalo and Steven Epstein, Dressers
Estella Marie and Mark Klein, Additional Wardrobe
Jessie Mojica, Hair and Makeup Supervisor
Erik Smithwick, Hair and Makeup Assistant
Coral Cohen and Jessie Sabatino, Covid Health and Safety Managers
Robbie Armstrong III, Production Assistant
Scenery by Cardiff Theatrical Services
Costumes by Cosprop
Lucy Griffiths, Claire Sanderson, and Bronia Topley, Props Makers
Belinda Clisham, Props Painter
Lily Mollgaard, Props Supervisor
Architect’s models made by Natalie Ryan, Jaimie Todd, and Alistair Turner, Props Department, Glyndebourne
Trick props made by Aaron Merriman
Furniture made by Properly Made
Polk & Co., Press Representatives
ASL interpretation by Hands On

Alex Poots, Artistic Director and CEO
Madani Younis, Chief Executive Producer
Laura Aswad, Producer
Daisy Peele, Associate Producer
Annabel Thompson, Associate Producer
Frank Butler, Director of Production
Sarah Pier, Production Manager

London Theatre Company is an independent commercial producing company, focused on the commissioning and production of new shows. It opened the Bridge Theatre in London in 2017. In addition to theater, LTC has produced for television, including a new version of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads for BBC One and Beat the Devil for Sky.

Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr, Co-Founders
Tim Levy, Co-Director
Katrina Gilroy, Director of Productions
Andrew Leveson, Director of Finance and Administration
Pauline Fallowell, Director of Marketing and Audiences

Technical
James Edwards, Head of Stage
Dave Kerry, Deputy Head of Stage
Nicole Smith, Head of Lighting
Adrian Hampton, Deputy Head of Lighting
Eleanor Dolan, Head of Costume
Anna Bliss Scully, Deputy Head of Costume
George Lumkin, Head of Sound
Nick Murray, Design Associate

Development, Producing, and Production
Will Mortimer, Head of Development
Millie Brierley, Associate Producer
Joey Jepps and Anya Winful, Production Assistants

Marketing
Bridie Heathcote, Marketing Manager
Jodie Cozier, Marketing Assistant

Finance and Business
Jane Capel and Georgina Lang, Heads of Finance
Kyriacos Israel, Assistant Accountant
Hannah Emery, Payroll and Finance Administrator

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The Shed operates under an agreement between The Shed and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

The directors are members of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union.

Accessibility

Seating

The Shed’s Griffin Theater has accessible seating. Please let our ushers know if you are staying in a wheelchair for a performance or using a theater seat.

Assistive Listening

Devices are available for you to borrow at the ticketing desk if you do not want to use your own smartphone.

ASL Interpretation

Performances on December 1 and 3 (matinee) will feature American Sign Language interpretation provided by Hands On. Please email accessibility@theshed.org or call (646) 455-3494 for information on how to reserve a seat near the ASL interpreter.

Purchasing Tickets

The Shed’s online ticketing system includes the option to submit accommodation requests beyond the access points detailed here.

Contact Us

For questions or other requests, visit the Accessibility page, email accessibility@theshed.org, or call (646) 455-3494.

Location and dates

This event takes place in The Griffin Theater.

October 18 – December 18, 2022

Tuesday and Thursday, 7 pm
Wednesday, 1 pm and 7 pm
Friday, 8 pm
Saturday, 2 pm and 8 pm
Sunday, 3 pm

There will be no performances on Thursday, November 24 and Tuesday, December 6.

The Shed is located at 545 West 30th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. For information about accessibility and arriving at The Shed, visit our Accessibility page.

Details

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes, with an intermission
Recommended for ages 12 and up
Late seating and re-seating are at the discretion of house management and not guaranteed.

Seat Map

Thank you to our partners

Major support for Straight Line Crazy is provided by

The creation of new work at The Shed is generously supported by the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Commissioning Fund and the Shed Commissioners.

Major support for live productions at The Shed is provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Shed is connected by