DETROIT, Mich.–It’s a dream come true for Detroit Public Theatre (DPT) to learn its first-ever commissioned play will head to Broadway next season. Birthday Candles by internationally acclaimed playwright Noah Haidle, which had its world premiere at Detroit Public Theatre in spring 2018, will be produced on Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines Theatre in Spring 2020. 

Detroit Public Theatre commissioned Haidle to write Birthday Candles in the Fall of 2016 and was honored to develop it as part of The New Play Workshop at Chautauqua Theater Company in the summer of 2017.  It received its world premiere in May of 2018 as the final play in DPT’s third season.  Haidle is a DPT artist and a founding Board Member of the company. Vivienne Benesch, who directed the world premiere at Detroit Public Theatre, will also direct the Broadway premiere. 

Debra Messing (Will & Grace) will star as Ernestine Ashworth, who spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it’s her 18th birthday, 41^st, 70^th and 101^st. Five generations, dozens of goldfish, an infinity of dreams, one cake baked over a century. What makes a lifetime…into a life?

“As a very young theater company, Detroit Public Theatre was thrilled to offer our first new play commission to Noah Haidle in 2016,” said Sarah Clare Corporandy, DPT Co-Producing Artistic Director and Co-Founder. “We made the bold choice to promise Noah his play would receive a full production in our third season without even knowing what the play was going to be about.  This faith that we had in each other as artists led to a treasured collaboration between Noah, Detroit Public Theatre and Chautauqua Theater Company.  Detroit Public Theatre audiences fell in love with Birthday Candles and we are so proud that this beautiful play is going to be on Broadway with a production from The Roundabout Theatre Company.” 

Earlier this year, Birthday Candles was honored with the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) Steinberg New Play citation.

“The commission to write Birthday Candles for Detroit Public Theatre came with what I believe to be an unprecedented component: a guaranteed production,” said Haidle.  “Without one word written, without even a title, this unknown commodity was programed intoDPT’s  2017-2018 season.  What if it had sucked?  Uh-oh, they would have definitely regretted their promise.  But, thankfully, the play turned out pretty okay, and it is in part their blind faith in me that led to its quality.  And now it’s going to Broadway.”