Producer Scott Rudin is back on Broadway this season with the boldest works of his comeback thus far: a critically acclaimed play about four convicted sex offenders and a starry, but nearly wordless play, Small Mouth Sounds, with Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd.
The play, Downstate, written by Bruce Norris, premiered in 2018 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2022, where it received positive reviews. Joe Mantello, who has led all of Rudin’s Broadway projects after his comeback, will also direct this piece, which runs this fall at the Booth Theatre starting Oct. 17, ahead of a Nov. 15 opening.
Small Mouth Sounds, written by Bess Wohl, last season’s Pulitzer Prize winner for Liberation, will run this spring, starring Roberts and Rudd as well as Martin Freeman, Greta Lee, Sarah Paulson and Isaac Powell. The comedic play, which is set at a silent retreat, has the unique convention of having the majority of its characters barely speak, and rather rely on their physicality. It comes to Broadway after well-reviewed runs Off-Broadway in 2015 and 2016.
Mantello also directs this play, which is set to begin performances Feb. 18, 2027 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, ahead of a March 18 opening.
