The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center
Beginning Performances July 23, 2026
Opening night August 11, 2026
New York, NY — La Femme Theatre Productions is proud to announce that its next production will be Wendy Wasserstein’s timely play An American Daughter, beginning July 23 in advance of its opening on August 11, 2026 on The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City. The production will be directed by Sarna Lapine.
Leading the cast will be Montego Glover (Gypsy), Robert Sean Leonard (Sunday in the Park With George), and Jean Lichty (The Night of the Iguana), joined by Dakin Matthews (Camelot), Mary Beth Peil (Anastasia), Ryan Spahn (Gloria), Will DeVary (Master Harold …and the Boys), Chris Ghaffari (Coriolanus), and Carmen Zilles (Dog Day Afternoon).
An American Daughter aptly fulfills La Femme’s mission in that the play, written by a woman, explores the female experience in a production directed by a woman. La Femme’s updated production, featuring an unpublished second act, marks the first New York revival of this sharp-witted play by the trailblazing Pulitzer Prize-winning Wendy Wasserstein, who was the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Play as a solo playwright.
Premiered in 1996, An American Daughter remains one of Wasserstein’s most incisive and sharply observed works. Blending comedy with pointed socio-political insight, the play examines the unraveling of a prominent political family as personal missteps, sexual politics, public scrutiny, and relentless media attention collide. It is a multifaceted tale of a family that cannibalizes its own legacy by undermining the potential of the daughter who carries the family torch — all with a significant assist from the media.
At the center of the story is a brilliant, accomplished woman, poised to step onto the national stage, until a seemingly minor personal oversight ignites a media frenzy that threatens to dismantle her reputation and shatter her dreams. As the story unfolds, Wasserstein deftly reveals the unfair standards placed on women in public life alongside society’s fear of ambitious, powerful women. Exploring the dilemma facing smart, powerful women, the prescient Wasserstein shines a light on just how fractured the American dream is.
“An American Daughter is one of those rare plays that continues to reveal new layers with every generation that encounters it,” said Jean Lichty, Executive Director of La Femme Theatre Productions. “For this production, we’ve been looking closely at the history of the play—what has worked beautifully in past productions and what resonates most strongly with audiences today—and thoughtfully bringing together the best elements of those interpretations, thereby allowing the piece to both speak freshly to our current moment and respect Wendy’s singular legacy.”
She continued, “We are thrilled to welcome Sarna Lapine as the show’s director. She is the perfect collaborator to help bring this vision to life and celebrate the work of a generational talent such as Wendy. Sarna has an extraordinary ability to illuminate both the humor and the emotional complexity in a script, and she understands how to center the intelligence, ambition, and vulnerability of Wendy’s characters. With Sarna at the helm, we’re confident this revival will not only honor Wendy’s voice but also offer a dynamic and contemporary production for New York audiences.”
This production will be cast by Stephanie Klapper, CSA, and general managed by LDK Productions.
An American Daughter is not a Signature Theatre production.
Set Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Props Designer
Dramaturg
Production Manager
Casting Director
Production Stage Manager
General Manager
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SARNA LAPINE is a New York-based director of musicals, plays, and opera, with a passion for developing new work and a skilled hand at radically reimagining revivals. She recently directed Jean Smart’s return to Broadway in the world premiere of Call Me Izzy at Studio 54. She directed the Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford. Lapine frequently collaborates with renowned playwright Kate Hamill, having directed the world premiere of Dracula (Classic Stage Company), as well as the New York premiere of Little Women. In addition to her work in New York, Lapine has worked extensively regionally and internationally. Select credits include Annie Get Your Gun (Bay Street Theater), Sweeney Todd (Signature Theatre), Into the Woods (The Guthrie Theater), Fiddler on the Roof (The Philadelphia Orchestra), The Rape of Lucretia (Boston Lyric Opera—named Best Opera of 2019 by The Boston Globe), and the Japanese premiere of Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51. Lapine has mounted the following productions across North America: The National Theatre’s War Horse (Associate Director for North American Tour and Japan), and Lincoln Center Theater’s Tony Award-winning revival, South Pacific (Associate Director of 1st National Tour). Her concert credits include: 4-Stars in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan, two Sondheim concerts with the Boston Pops, as well as Sondheim on Sondheim with the LA Phil, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel at The Hollywood Bowl. www.sarnalapine.com
LA FEMME THEATRE PRODUCTIONS is an all-inclusive theatre company dedicated to the exploration and celebration of the universal female experience. Its mission is to highlight and clarify the experiences of all women, particularly but not exclusively those of adult women, through the texts of both women and men, particularly but not exclusively those of the classic American canon, and to investigate the lens through which both women and men view women. Accordingly, La Femme endeavors to engender stage, film, television, and digital media projects that probe those lenses.
Moreover, La Femme seeks to produce works that not only feature significant roles for women but also examine the meaning of female identity in yesterday’s, today’s, and tomorrow’s worlds. And, by presenting and sharing these stories of the female experience, La Femme hopes to encourage girls and women of all ages and backgrounds to follow their dreams – and “break ceilings.” To help break those ceilings, La Femme not only mentors young women by providing professional internships and fellowships but also showcases their talent in its development programs A Woman’s Storyland, Women on the Verge, and Corner Nest Lab under the umbrella of its annual Women in Agency Festival (WIAF).
The Pershing Square Signature Center, the permanent home of Signature Theatre, is a three-theatre facility on West 42nd Street and Jim Houghton Way designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature’s three distinct playwrights’ residencies and foster a cultural community. The Center is a major contribution to New York City’s cultural landscape and provides a venue for cultural organizations that supports and encourages collaboration among artists throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theatres, the Center features a studio theatre, rehearsal studio, a bookstore, and the Signature Café + Bar. For more information on renting the Center, please visit www.signaturetheatre.org/rent-our-space.
Performance Details
An American Daughter
Presented by La Femme Theatre Productions
Directed by Sarna Lapine
The Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center
Beginning July 23, 2026
For more information, visit LaFemmeTheatreProductions.org
MONTEGO GLOVER (Judith B. Kaufman) is a Tony Award Nominee, Two-time Drama Desk Award Winner, Outer Critics’ Circle Award Winner & Honoree, and Drama League Award Nominee. Broadway: Gypsy, Into The Woods, Memphis, Les Misérables, It Shoulda Been You, The Color Purple, and Hamilton. Selected TV/Film: “Inventing Anna,” “BULL,” “Black Box,” “Evil,” “The Following,” “Hostages,” “Smash,” “The Good Wife,” “Law & Order,” Jack Ryan, Entergalactic. Accomplished voiceover artist. Recently, the critically acclaimed Brown Girl Dreaming for Penguin Random House Audio. Concert Guest Artist. Most recently, a sold-out evening of Gershwin with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall.@MontegoGlover MontegoGlover.com
ROBERT SEAN LEONARD (Walter Abrahmson) Broadway: Sunday in the Park with George (Sarna Lapine, dir.); The Invention of Love (Tony Award); Long Day’s Journey into Night (Tony Award Nomination); Candida (Tony Award Nomination); Born Yesterday; The Violet Hour; The Music Man; The Iceman Cometh; Arcadia; Philadelphia, Here I Come!; The Speed of Darkness; Breaking the Code; Brighton Beach Memoirs. Off-Broadway: At Home At The Zoo (Obie Award); Prodigal Son; Fifth of July; Sally’s Gone, She Left Her Name; The Beach House; You Never Can Tell; When She Danced. London: Our Town; To Kill a Mockingbird (Barbican). Regional credits include King Lear; Richard II; Pygmalion (The Old Globe Theatre); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Huntington, Boston); Dead End (Williamstown);The Glass Menagerie (Center Stage). Film and Television: Dead Poets Society; Much Ado About Nothing; The Age of Innocence; Mr. & Mrs. Bridge; Swing Kids; Tape; Chelsea Walls, and Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco. He appeared for nine seasons on the Fox medical drama “House” and most recently on “The Gilded Age.”
Jean Lichty, a producing artist, founded La Femme Theatre Productions in 2013. Now piloting the NYC revival of Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana and the world premiere of Phanésia Pharel’s Black Girl Joy, the recipient of La Femme’s first NEA grant, Jean previously led La Femme’s production of Tennessee Williams’s A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur and co-produced Horton Foote’s The Traveling Lady and Ingmar Bergman’s Nora. Associate producer of Clifford Odets’s Rocket to the Moon and the first NYC revival of William Inge’s A Loss of Roses, she also produced a staged reading featuring Brian Cox.
Before playing Hannah in La Femme’s virtual presentation of The Night of the Iguana, Jean portrayed Dorothea in A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, the title roles in The Traveling Lady and Nora, preceded by Lila in A Loss of Roses, and Cherie in Bus Stop. After graduating from Barnard College, Columbia University, with theater honors, she trained with William Esper and Wynn Handman. And her partnering with Austin Pendleton and Robert Dohmen to establish a theater company has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
DAKIN MATTHEWS (Senator Alan Hughes). Broadway: Camelot, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Iceman Cometh, Waitress, The Audience, Rocky, The Best Man, A Man for All Seasons, Henry IV. Off-Broadway: Henry IV (TFANA), Freedomland (Playwrights Horizons), Hostage, School for Scandal, Women Beware Women (Acting Company). Regional Theatre: over 250 productions. Film and Television: 30 films (including True Grit, Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, and Zero Charisma) and 300 TV appearances (including “Gilmore Girls,” “King of Queens,” “The Gilded Age”). Founding member of the Acting Company, award-winning playwright, dramaturge, and translator of Spanish Golden Age plays, Shakespeare scholar, masterclass teacher, and Emeritus Professor of English (CSUEB).
MARY BETH PEIL (Charlotte “Chubby” Hughes) is equally at home on Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, and television, following a distinguished 20-year career in opera and concert performance. Among her many leading operatic roles, she originated the role of Alma in Summer and Smoke. Broadway: Anastasia (Tony Award nomination), Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Follies, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Sunday in the Park with George, Nine, and The King and I (Tony Award nomination). Off-Broadway: Obie Award winner; ensemble member of Atlantic Theater Company, with numerous productions at Classic Stage Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, and The Public Theater. Film: The Home, Jimmy and Carolyn, The Odd Couple 2, and The Stepford Wives. Television: “Dawson’s Creek” (Grams) and “The Good Wife”(Jackie Florrick).
RYAN SPAHN (Morrow McCarthy) is a Drama Desk Award-winning actor and writer. Select Off-Broadway credits include Richard II (Red Bull Theater), Danger and Opportunity (East Village Basement), The Antiquities (Playwrights Horizons), Jordans (The Public Theater), Merry Me (New York Theatre Workshop), Jane Anger (The New Ohio), Daniel’s Husband (Westside Theatre), Moscow x6 (MCC Theater), Exit Strategy (Primary Stages), and Gloria (Vineyard Theatre). Recent television credits include “Zero Day,” “Elsbeth,” “American Horror Story: Delicate,” “Succession,” and “Chicago P.D.” Ryan co-wrote the feature film He’s Way More Famous Than You and wrote the play Inspired By True Events, named one of Theatrely’s “Best of 2024.” A graduate of The Juilliard School, he was also the first teenage Borg on “Star Trek: Voyager.”
WILL DEVARY (Billy Robbins) is an actor, director, and writer originally from Kentucky. Theatre: Master Harold and The Boys, Jeeves and Wooster… (The Schoolhouse Theater), Richard II (Boomerang Theatre Company), Heading Into Night (Tour ‘23-‘24), Henry V, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Kentucky Shakespeare Festival), The Fan (The Cherry Arts), Antony and Cleopatra (Ithaca Shakespeare Company), A Christmas Carol (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Film/TV: “Born 2 Lose,” Men Go to Battle. Ithaca College BFA. Unbelievably grateful to be a part of this team. Huge thanks to Jean, Sarna, Stephanie, Ken, Angelina, Zach, Sophie, and Lou, for everything. willdevary.com
CHRIS GHAFFARI (Timber Tucker) New York: Coriolanus, King Lear (The Public/NYSF). Regional: Romeo in Darko Tresnjak’s Romeo and Juliet and the world premiere of Bess Wohl’s Make Believe (Hartford Stage); Russian Troll Farm (Geva); Sex With Strangers, What the Butler Saw (Westport Country Playhouse); As You Like It, Julius Caesar (Shakespeare on the Sound). TV: “Prodigal Son,” “Evil,” “Maniac” (Netflix), “Madam Secretary.” Film: 21 Bridges starring Chadwick Boseman, The Report, Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw, and Some Freaks. Training: Yale School of Drama.
CARMEN ZILLES (Quincy Quince) Broadway: Dog Day Afternoon. Off-Broadway includes: Deep Blue Sound (The Public/Clubbed Thumb), Epiphany (Lincoln Center), Fefu and her Friends (TFANA), Small Mouth Sounds (Signature), Scenes from a Marriage (New York Theatre Workshop), Chimichangas & Zoloft (Atlantic), Little Women (Primary Stages), Adoration of the Old Woman (Atlantic). TV/Film includes: “Bel Canto” (opposite Julianne Moore), “Pimp” (opposite Keke Palmer and rapper DMX), and several appearances in the Dick Wolf Cinematic Universe. Training: Yale School of Drama
WYNN HARMON (u/s Senator Alan Hughes) Broadway: Porgy and Bess (broadcast “Live from Lincoln Center” on PBS). International: Candide, The Music Man, West Side Story (France, Sardinia, Oman). OffBroadway: The Light and the Dark (Primary Stages),The Lucky One (Mint), Sawbones and The Diamond Eater (Here). Regional: Billie Jean (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Choice (McCarter); Love All (La Jolla) The Constant Wife, plus ten Shakespeares (Old Globe) also: Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Alley Theatre, Studio Theatre, Arena Stage, and Glimmerglass Festival. TV: “Law & Order SVU”, “Madam Secretary”, “The Knick”. Awards: The Edwin E. Stein Award for Excellence in the Arts.
CHANTAL JEAN-PIERRE (u/s Judith B. Kaufman, Charlotte “Chubby” Hughes) is thrilled to make her La Femme Theatre début. She has graced the stages of several reputable regional theaters around the country, performing classics as well as contemporary works such as the title role in both Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Orlando Shakespeare Theater productions’ of Antony and Cleopatra, and King Lear at the Folgers in Washington DC with Andre De Shields as the title role. She has guest-starred on a number of television shows such as: “FBI,” “Blue Bloods,” “New Amsterdam,” “The Good Fight” and the like. Find out more about her at: chantaljean-pierre.com .
TOMMY SCHRIDER (u/s Walter Abrahmson) appeared on Broadway in War Horse. NYC credits include shows at Theater For A New Audience, Red Bull Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Ensemble Studio Theater, Irish Rep, New York Theater Workshop, Keen Company, Classic Stage, Ripe Time. His regional credits include Yale Rep, South Coast Rep, Huntington Theater, Westport Playhouse, Berkshire Theater Festival, Williamstown, Syracuse Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Hangar Theater, Andrew’s Lane Theater in Dublin. TV: “The Americans,” “POSE,” “Blacklist,” “Elementary,” “The Good Fight,” “The Enemy Within,” “Madame Secretary,” “Medium,” “Numbers,” “L&O”. MFA: NYU Grad Acting.
ROBBIE SIMPSON (u/s Morrow McCarthy, Timber Tucker, Billy Robbins) New York: original casts of Paradise Lost, Afterglow, and Scarlett Dreams; work with Mint Theater Company, La MaMa, Gingold Theatrical Group, and The Juilliard School. Regional: leading roles at The Old Globe, Syracuse Stage, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cape Playhouse, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Theatre Workshop of Nantucket, and Berkshire Theatre Festival, among others. TV: Finding Mr. Christmas (Hallmark; Critics Choice and GLAAD Award nominations), General Hospital (ABC), The Path (Hulu), and Dietland (AMC). Robbie is Director of Creative Development at Midnight Theatricals, Director of Musical Theater at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and on faculty at NYU. BFA: Syracuse University. MFA: University of San Diego. @MrRobbieSimpson
SARAH UTTERBACK (u/s Dr. Lyssa Dent Hughs, Quincy Quince) is a co-founder of IAMA Theatre Company, appearing in the world premieres of Cult of Love, The Accidental Blonde, Surfer Girl, Unt Baby Play, A Kid Like Jake (Pasadena Playhouse, West Coast premiere), and the workshop production of Esther Perel Ruined My Life. TV: Nurse Olivia on “Grey’s Anatomy”, “The Morning Show,” “9-1-1,” “The Mysteries of Laura,” “NCIS,” “Cold Case,” “Medium,” “Ghost Whisperer,” “Family Guy.” Training: BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, RADA, The School at Steppenwolf. Endless gratitude to Wendy W., Sarna and the AAD team! @sarahutterback
MIKIKO SUZUKI MACADAMS (Scenic Design) Broadway: Call Me Izzy; West End: Clueless; Off-Broadway: The Public, The Shed, Second Stage, Primary Stages, Working Theater, Epic Theater Ensemble, INTAR, EST, and the NAATCO. Other: Guthrie, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep., The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep., Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Universal Studio Japan, and more. As an associate set designer, she has worked on over 40 productions for Broadway, West End and US, UK and international tours. Currently, she is a design faculty at Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Website: mikikosmacadams.com
DONNA ZAKOWSKA (Costume Design) Previous theatre with Arrabal, Big Apple Circus, Martha Clarke (Angel Reapers, Threepenny Opera, Kaos), Eve Ensler, Richard Foreman, Mick Jagger, John Kelly, William H. Macy, Tom O’Horgan, Roman Paska, Carey Perloff, Steve Reich, Julie Taymor. Broadway: Relatively Speaking; New York, New York. Film and television: Mac (Caméra d’Or, Cannes), Harriet the Spy, Forces of Nature, Illuminata (Official Selection, Cannes), One True Thing, Original Sin, Kate & Leopold, Empire Falls, Romance & Cigarettes (Official Selection, Venice), John Adams (CDG, Emmy Awards), The Iceman, Fading Gigolo, TURN, Gringo, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (CDG, Emmy Awards), Étoile. Other awards include NY Women in Film & Television.
ALAN C. EDWARDS (Lighting Design) West End: Harry Clarke. Off-B’way: My Joy Is Heavy (NYTW); Monte Cristo (York); Fires in The Mirror [Lortel Nom.], Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Signature NYC); Harry Clarke [Lortel Award] (Vineyard); Kill Move Paradise [Drama Desk nom] (NBT); Twelfth Night, Memnon (CTH). Regional: Beautiful (Asolo Rep); Gatsby: An American Myth [Norton Award] (A.R.T.); Appropriate (Old Globe); Fences (The Alley); How Shakespeare Saved My Life (Berkeley Rep). Dance: In The Same Tongue (Dianne McIntyre); Chasing Magic (Ayodele Casel); Lifted (Christopher Rudd) for American Ballet Theatre. Teaching: Asst. Prof. of Lighting Design at Yale School of Drama. Training: M.F.A from Yale School of Drama. alancedwards.com
DARRON L WEST (Sound Design) He is a TONY and two-time OBIE award-winning sound designer whose 40-year career spans theater and dance, on Broadway, Off Broadway and regional theaters too numerous to list here. His work has been heard in over 700 productions all over the United States and internationally in 15 countries. Additional honors include the Lortel, Audelco and Princess Grace Foundation Statue Award, among many others.
KATHY FABIAN/PROPSTAR LLC (Props Design) Recent Broadway credits include I Need That, Purlie Victorious, Camelot, Pictures from Home, Between Riverside and Crazy, A Beautiful Noise, The Piano Lesson, POTUS, and American Buffalo. Broadway Musicals Include: Pretty Woman, Indecent, Sunday in the Park with George, Falsettos, Fiddler on the Roof, On Your Feet!, If/Then, Rocky, The King and I, An American in Paris, and Kinky Boots. Off-Broadway: Broken Snow, The Night of the Iguana, Black No More (TNG), Trevor (Stage 42). National Tour: The Wiz.
AMY STOLLER (Dramaturg) Dialect design and/or dramaturgy for La Femme’s The Traveling Lady, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, The Night of the Iguana, Camino Real (reading), and for the Mint Theater Company, 40+ productions, most recently Garside’s Career; Crooked Cross, and coming this fall: Phyl. Dialects with and for Anna Deavere Smith: Basil Biggs at ArtPhilly’s What Now: 2026 Festival; Notes from the Field (stage, screen, audiobook); Let Me Down Easy (stage, screen); Love All, others. Film/TV includes Zola, Selma, and Dora the Explorer. League of Professional Theatre Women’s 2023 Ruth Morley Design Award for outstanding work in theatrical design.stollersystem.com
STEPHANIE KLAPPER CASTING (Casting Director) is thrilled to work on her 6th production with La Femme Theatre Productions. SKC’s award-winning work is frequently seen on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally, on film and concert stages. Ten Seasons with Mint Theater including most recently Zack; Select credits: The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (NY Classical); Mythic (dir Kathleen Marshall /U.S. Premiere); Come from Away (ATF); Mystic Pizza (Cap. Rep); AVA: The Secret Conversations (NY City Center Stage 1); The Night of the Iguana (Signature Theatre Center); Coming Soon: Phyl (Mint); Ken Ludwig World Premiere directed by Emily Mann (WCP); Heist (CPHP, Milwaukee Rep., Gulfshore Playhouse) and more! Select Film: Nubile (w. Fina Strazza); Standy (w. Reed Birney); Netuser (w. Denis O’Hare); Elf Quest the audio movie, Ranked, the musical/HBO Documentary. Stephanie and her team are known for their limitless imagination and creativity, as well as connecting creative, caring people to each other to make extraordinary things happen. Member: Casting Society; Casting Society Cares; Jimmy Awards judge; TSOA Women’s Mentorship; Say Gay Plays Advisory Board. klappercasting.com
