Leopoldstadt on Broadway Tickets

By: Tom Stoppard
Director: Patrick Marber
Cast list: Brandon Uranowitz, Seth Numrich, Jesse Aaronson, Betsy Aidem, Jenna Augen, Japhet Balaban, Corey Brill, Daniel Cantor, Faye Castelow, Erica Dasher, Eden Epstein, Gina Ferrall, Dave Register, Charlotte Graham, Jacqueline Jarrold, Sarah Killough, Joshua Malina, Colleen Litchfield, Tedra Millan, Aaron Neil, Cody Braverman, Anthony Rosenthal, Chris Stevens, Sara Topham, Dylan Wallach, Reese Bogin, Max Ryan Burach, Michael Deaner, Romy Fay, Pearl Scarlett Gold, Jaxon Cain Grundleger, Wesley Holloway, Ava Michele Hyl, Joshua Satine, Aaron Shuf, Drew Ryan Squire, Ali Rose Dachis
Design: Richard Hudson
Lighting: Neil Austin
Costume: Brigitte Reiffenstuel
Sound: Adam Cork

Leopoldstadt is not a play about Stoppard's family, but he based the show loosely on his own Jewish heritage, which he only learned of in 1993, at 56 years old, when a Czech relative from his mother's side contacted him. He was inspired to write about preserving one's history after learning many of his mother's relatives died in the Holocaust — something she never spoke to Stoppard about. The New York Times described Leopoldstadt as "one man’s passionate declaration of identity as a Jew."

"It's like a tapestry," said cast member Sara Topham of Leopoldstadt "It has all these little threads that weave in and out and things that don't reveal themselves until later in the play. If it was on Netflix, you would definitely want to binge it."

Though the piece is filled with lots of historical detail, Leopoldstadt is accessible to all audiences. One cast member recommended the show to Succession fans, and another described it as "Hamilton without music," in that Leopoldstadt is a historic drama with the message that we only get one life and legacy, which we should cherish and learn from.

What to Watch For

• Tony Award winner Patrick Marber directs Leopoldstadt on Broadway. He also directed Stoppard's last Broadway production, a 2018 revival of his play Travesties, and received a Tony nomination for it.
• The Leopoldstadt extended family includes the fictional Merzes and Jacobovitzes. Marber is Jewish, and some of his relatives have the last name Jacobovitz; that's why Stoppard used that name in the play.
• Many of the Leopoldstadt actors are Jewish themselves, with family histories that reflect those in the play to varying degrees. In London, for a scene in which the characters are labeling their ancestors in a photo album, one cast member brought in photos of her ancestors that were used in the show.
• Leopoldstadt shares themes with Prayer for the French Republic, Joshua Harmon's show about multiple generations of a Jewish family that ran to acclaim off Broadway last season. According to Betsy Aidem, a cast member in both shows, they are different, though. In Prayer, the central family anticipates the effects anti-Semitism will have on their safety, but in Leopoldstadt, they "make the assumption that they have assimilated and that they are part of a culture that accepts them, when in fact that ends up not being true."
• Twenty-four cast members of Leopoldstadt in New York are making their Broadway debuts.