The Balusters
by David Lindsay-Abaire
directed by Kenny Leon
with Marylouise Burke, Kayli Carter, Ricardo Chavira, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Margaret Colin, Michael Esper, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Anika Noni Rose, Richard Thomas, Jeena Yi
ON BROADWAY AT THE
SAMUEL J. FRIEDMAN THEATRE
2025-26 Season
The Vernon Point Neighborhood Association is a passionate bunch, whether squabbling over historically inaccurate porch railings or debating trash can protocol. Still, no one is prepared for the neighbor-versus-neighbor battle royale that ensues when a newcomer to the board suggests the unthinkable: installing a stop sign on the corner of the enclave’s prettiest block. Written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner, Manhattan Theatre Club veteran, and master of antics David Lindsay-Abaire (Kimberly Akimbo, Rabbit Hole, Good People, Ripcord) and directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (Othello, Our Town, Topdog Underdog, King James), The Balusters is a raucous, wild ride through a small community with big feelings.
The Balusters was commissioned by MTC through the Bank of America New Play Program and is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Production support is provided by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, and the Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater.
Cast
Marylouise Burke
Penny Bewell
Marylouise Burke returns to MTC with frequent collaborator David Lindsay-Abaire, a partnership that began in 1999 with her Drama Desk Award-winning performance in Fuddy Meers. Marylouise was most recently seen on Broadway in True West with Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano. Previous Broadway credits include Into the Woods, Is He Dead?, Fish in the Dark. She appeared recently at London’s National Theatre in Annie Baker’s John and Infinite Life. Off-Broadway credits include Infinite Life (Atlantic); Epiphany; Everybody (OCC, Drama League nominations); Ripcord; Fuddy Meers (Drama Desk Award, Featured Actress); Kimberly Akimbo (OCC, Drama Desk nominations, Leading Actress); Savannah Disputation; American Sligo; Imagining the Imaginary Invalid; Love, Loss, and What I Wore. On television, she recently appeared in “Only Murders in the Building,” and recurred on “The Blacklist,” “New Amsterdam,” “Prodigal Son,” and “Ozark.” Films include I Know This Much Is True, Sideways, A Prairie Home Companion, Series 7, Must Love Dogs, Meet Joe Black, and Sleepwalk with Me. She was awarded the 2014 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance.
Kayli Carter
Willow Gibbons
Kayli Carter is a New York-based actor and writer whose previous notable credits include Emmy-nominated shows “Mrs. America” (FX), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon), “Godless” (Netflix), and the Focus Features film Let Him Go. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the Best Supporting Female category for her work in Tamara Jenkins’s Netflix feature Private Life. Her previous stage work includes Tom Hank and James Glossman’s This World of Tomorrow, directed by Kenny Leon, Tracy Letts’s Mary Page Marlowe, directed by Lila Neugebauer, and On The Evolutionary Function of Shame. She originated the role of Flo in Mark Rylance’s Olivier Award-nominated comedy Nice Fish. She will be seen in the upcoming series “Vladimir” (20th Television, Netflix) opposite Rachel Weisz.
Ricardo Chavira
Isaac Rosario
Ricardo Chavira is a South Texas native whose acting career spans theater, film and television. His stage highlights include The Motherf**ker with the Hat at the National Theatre London and the Off-Broadway production of Jesus Hopped the A Train. U.S. regional theater credits include A Doll’s House, Shane, An Enemy of the People and A Streetcar Named Desire at the Guthrie Theater; also regionally Living Out, Tracers, Three Sisters, Dogeaters, ¡Bandido! and Macbeth. TV credits include “Ballard” on Amazon Prime, “Selena the Series” and “Glamorous” for Netflix, and Apple TV+’s “Truth Be Told” opposite Octavia Spencer. Past TV credits include “Scandal”; “Jane the Virgin”; “Santa Clarita Diet”; “Hawaii 5-0”; “Castle”; “Burn Notice”; “Welcome to the Family”; “Desperate Housewives,” garnering two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance Ensemble Comedy Series; “George Lopez”; “24”; “JAG”; NYPD Blue”; and “Six Feet Under.” Film credits include Being Charlie, Powder and Gold, Don’t Let Me Drown, The Alamo, Piranha 3-D and Saving God. Chavira holds an M.F.A. in acting from the University of California, San Diego. For T and B, always.
Carl Clemons-Hopkins
Brooks Duncan
Carl Clemons-Hopkins is excited to make their Broadway debut at MTC! Off-Broadway credits include the world premieres of Lessons In Survival: 1971 (Vineyard Theatre) and For The Last Time (Theatre Row). Other theater credits include Dare: Scenes and Monologues for TNB2S+ Artists (Breaking the Binary Theatre), Hamilton (Chicago, 1st National), The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf Theatre), Time is On Our Side (Simpatico Theatre), Richard III (People’s Light & Theatre Co.), Macbeth (Arden Theatre). Film: Candyman (2019), The Mattache Family (2023). Television: “Chicago Med” (NBC); “Star Trek: Lower Decks” (CBS); “Hacks” (HBO), for which he received a 2021 Emmy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy.
Margaret Colin
Ruth Ackerman
Broadway: Jackie: An American Life (Theatre World Award), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Old Acquaintance (Drama League Award nomination), Arcadia, The Columnist, Carousel (Equity’s Richard Seff Award). Off-Broadway/Regional: Aristocrats (Drama Desk Award nomination), Psychopathia Sexualis, Defiance (Drama Desk Award nomination), Hamlet (Delacorte Theater), Salome, Betrayal (The Actors Studio), City of Conversation (Arena Stage; Helen Hayes Award nomination), The Pentagon Papers (China tour), Sweet Bird of Youth (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Second Mrs. Wilson (Long Wharf), A Second of Pleasure (59E59), AdA (La Mama). Television: “Veep” (Screen Actors Guild Award), “Shades of Blue,” “Gossip Girl,” Margo on “As the World Turns,” “Now and Again,” “Leg Work,” “Sibs,” “The Wright Verdicts,” Hallmark’s “Three Wise Men” series, “Time to Say Goodbye?”, “Hit and Run,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Hope,” and “Blue Bloods.” Select Film: Independence Day, First Daughter, The Missing Person, Something Wild, and Unfaithful.
Michael Esper
Alan Kirby
Michael Esper has originated roles on Broadway and Off in Appropriate, (Hayes Theater), The Last Ship, (The Ahmanson) American Idiot, (St, James Theater), The Lyons, (The Vineyard), The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…,(The Public Theater) Lazarus (NY/ and West End), , A Bright Room Called Day, (The Public Theater), Big Bill, (LCT), The Four Of Us, (MTC), The Agony and the Agony, Assistance, and Crazy Mary, ( all at Playwrights Horizons).
Other plays include A Man for All Seasons, (The Roundabout), Suburbia, (Second Stage), The Glass Menagerie (West End), Tales From Red Vienna, (MTC), and Long Day’s Journey into Night, (Dublin Theater Festival).
In television, Series Regular roles include TRUST, (FX) and Do No Harm, (NBC) .
Recurring roles include the Amazon series Fallout, and the recently released Peacock limited series, Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy and Showtime’s Nurse Jackie. Other Select TV credits include The Outsider, Ray Donovan, Florida Man, The Family and Shades of Blue.
Feature film credits include Pavements, dir. Alex Ross Perry, Griffin In Summer, dir. Nicholas Colia, Beau is Afraid, dir. Ari Aster, The Creator, dir. Gareth Edwards, Resurrection, dir. Andrew Semans, Ben is Back, dir. Peter Hedges, Runner Runner, dir. Brad Furman, Frances Ha, dir. Noah Baumbach, All Good Things, dir. Andrew Jarecki and A Beautiful Mind, dir. Ron Howard.
Maria-Christina Oliveras
Luz Baccay
Broadway: Between Riverside and Crazy, Amélie, Machinal, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; Persephone in the Broadway National Tour of Hadestown. Off-Broadway: Cymbeline (Drama Desk Award Nomination); world premieres of Here Lies Love (The Public), A Woman Among Women, Pretty Filthy, Parable of the Sower (The Public), Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Music (St. Ann’s Warehouse/HBO Max). Regional: world premieres of Kiss My Aztec! (Berkeley Rep, La Jolla, Hartford Stage), Soft Power (Center Theater Group/Curran); Amélie (Center Theater Group/Berkeley Rep); El Huracán (Yale Rep), January Joiner (Long Wharf). Other credits include Romeo and Juliet (Public), Macbeth/As You Like It (HVSF), Zorba! (City Center/Encores), Williamstown, Baltimore Center Stage, Huntington, Denver Center. Dedicated to new work, Maria-Christina has developed countless plays and musicals with Lincoln Center, MTC, NYTW, Signature, O’Neill, Atlantic, New Dramatists (Charles Bowden Award), among others. Selected Film/TV: St. Vincent, Manhattan Nocturne, “Blue Bloods,” “NCIS: NOLA,” “The Blacklist,” “Law & Order: SVU.”
Anika Noni Rose
Kyra Marshall
Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose is known around the world for having voiced Princess Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and The Frog, featuring the first African American Disney Princess. The film received three Academy Award nominations and Anika became the youngest inductee to be honored as a Disney Legend. She is the author of the children’s book Tiana’s Perfect Plan. Anika also stars as Afia in the Disney movie, Mufasa: The Lion King, and as Squeal of Fortune in Zootopia 2.
She was last seen on the small screen in “Let The Right One In,” based on the internationally best-selling novel of the same name. She drew notice for her acclaimed performance as Regina in Netflix’s most-watched limited series to date, “Maid,” opposite Margaret Qualley and Nick Robinson, for which she was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special at the 2022 NAACP Image Awards.
Anika appeared in Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (Netflix), Lena Waithe’s horror anthology “Them” (Amazon) and “Little Fires Everywhere” (Hulu) with Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Additionally, Anika led the cast of BET’s series “The Quad” as Eva Fletcher for two seasons and in 2017, she starred in the film Everything, Everything based on the popular young adult novel of the same name by Nicola Yoon.
Continuing to take on iconic characters, Anika starred in the History Channel’s adaption of “Roots” as Kizzy (NAACP Image Award nomination). On the big screen, Anika starred as Lorell Robinson in Dreamgirls (AFI Ensemble Award, SAG Award nomination, Grammy Award nomination).
Additional television and film credits include: “Power,” “The Good Wife,” “The Simpsons,” “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” For Colored Girls, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Assassination Nation.
Anika most recently starred in the critically acclaimed revival of Uncle Vanya on Broadway alongside Steve Carell. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Caroline, or Change (Lucille Lortel Award, Theatre World Award, Obie Award, Clarence Derwent Award, Drama Desk nomination). Additional Broadway credits: A Raisin in the Sun (Tony Award nomination and Outer Critics Circle nomination), Footloose. Additional stage credits include Carmen Jones for which she won a Lucille Lortel Award, an AUDELCO Award, and received Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations; the New York Philharmonic’s production of Company, and Broadway’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen.
A 12-time NAACP Image Award nominee, including the most recent nomination for her voice work as Marion Lavorre in “The Mighty Nein” on Amazon, Anika has voiced many audiobooks, and has performed sold out concerts all over the world, including singing at Carnegie Hall and the Vatican.
Richard Thomas
Elliot Emerson
Richard Thomas starred as John-Boy Walton in the television drama “The Waltons,” for which he won an Emmy Award and received multiple Golden Globe Award nominations. He is best known to television audiences for his roles in the hit series “Ozark,” “The Americans,” “Billions,” and the original adaptation of Stephen King’s “IT.” His feature film performances include The Unforgiveable, Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys, and Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock. Thomas received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the revival of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes. He has been seen in acclaimed performances on stage including Our Town, You Can’t Take It With You, The Great Society, Race, Democracy, Incident at Vichy (Drama Desk Award nomination), The Stendhal Syndrome (Lucille Lortel Award nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, An Enemy of the People, Tiny Alice, The Front Page, Fifth Of July, innumerable Shakespeare productions, and his professional debut at eight years old in Sunrise At Campobello. He has starred in the national tours of The Humans (Elliot Norton Award), Twelve Angry Men, and for three years as Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill A Mockingbird.
Jeena Yi
Melissa Han
Jeena is an Actor and Playwright born in Los Angeles but now calls New York City home. Broadway: Network. Off-Broadway: The Beastiary (Ars Nova), Good Enemy (Audible) Daphne (LCT3), Judgement Day (Park Ave Armory) Cymbeline (NAATCO), Somebody’s Daughter (2nd Stage). Regional: HeartSellers (Studio DC), Today is My Birthday, GIRLS (Yale Rep), Vietgone (OSF/Seattle Rep). TV/Film: Nyad (Netflix), Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), The Resident (Fox), Succession (HBO).
Jeena will make her playwriting debut Off-Broadway with Ma-Yi at The Public Theater in Spring 2026. @JeenaYi
Marylouise Burke
Penny Bewell
Kayli Carter
Willow Gibbons
Ricardo Chavira
Isaac Rosario
Carl Clemons-Hopkins
Brooks Duncan
Margaret Colin
Ruth Ackerman
Michael Esper
Alan Kirby
Maria-Christina Oliveras
Luz Baccay
Anika Noni Rose
Kyra Marshall
Richard Thomas
Elliot Emerson
Jeena Yi
Melissa Han
Creative
David Lindsay-Abaire
Playwright
David Lindsay-Abaire is a Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, screenwriter, lyricist and librettist. His most recent show, the musical Kimberly Akimbo, written with composer Jeanine Tesori, premiered Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, where it won the Lortel, NYDCC, OCC and Drama Desk Awards for Best Musical before it moved to Broadway and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. His play Good People premiered on Broadway at MTC, was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, The Horton Foote Prize, The Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, and two Tony nominations. His play Rabbit Hole also premiered on Broadway at MTC and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, five Tony nominations, and the Spirit of America Award. David also wrote the book and lyrics for Shrek the Musical (Jeanine Tesori, composer), which was nominated for eight Tonys, four Oliviers, a Grammy, and earned David the Kleban Prize as America’s most promising musical theatre lyricist. David’s other plays include Ripcord, Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo andWonder of the World, which all premiered at MTC, as well as A Devil Inside at Soho Rep. In addition to his work in theatre, David’s screen credits include his film adaptation of Rabbit Hole (starring Nicole Kidman, Oscar nomination), Dreamworks’ Rise of the Guardians, and The Family Fang, among others. He is also, along with Tanya Barfield, Co-Director of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at the Juilliard School.
Kenny Leon
Director
Tony Award-winning director. Broadway: Othello; Our Town; HOME; Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch; Topdog/Underdog; Ohio State Murders; A Soldier’s Play; American Son; Children of a Lesser God; Holler If Ya Hear Me; A Raisin in the Sun; The Mountaintop; Stick Fly; August Wilson’s Fences, Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf. Off-Broadway: King James (MTC); The Underlying Chris; Everybody’s Ruby; Emergence-See! (The Public); Smart People (Second Stage). Opera: Margaret Garner. Television: “Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia,” “Colin in Black & White,” “4400,” “Amend: The Fight for America,” American Son (adapted for Netflix), Hairspray Live!, The Wiz Live!, Steel Magnolias, “Dynasty,” In My Dreams. Author: Take You Wherever You Go. Artistic Director Emeritus: Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. Senior Resident Director: Roundabout Theatre Company. Awards: Obie, Actors Fund Medal of Honor, George Abbott Lifetime Achievement for American Theatre, Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre.
Derek McLane
Scenic Design
Emilio Sosa
Costume Design
Allen Lee Hughes
Lighting Design
Dan Moses Schreier
Original Music and Sound Design
J. Jared Janas
Hair & Make-up Design
Thomas Schall
Fight Direction
Deborah Hecht
Vocal Coach
Ioana Alfonso
Movement & Associate Director
Caparelliotis Casting/Kelly Gillespie
Casting
Tripp Phillips
Production Stage Manager
David Lindsay-Abaire
Playwright
Kenny Leon
Director
Derek McLane
Scenic Design
Emilio Sosa
Costume Design
Allen Lee Hughes
Lighting Design
Dan Moses Schreier
Original Music and Sound Design
J. Jared Janas
Hair & Make-up Design
Thomas Schall
Fight Direction
Deborah Hecht
Vocal Coach
Ioana Alfonso
Movement & Associate Director
Caparelliotis Casting/Kelly Gillespie
Casting
Tripp Phillips
Production Stage Manager