Nicholas Braun and Kara Young are about to take the stage together.
Coming this fall, Braun (Succession) and Young (Purpose, Purlie Victorious) will co-star in an off-Broadway revival of Rajiv Joseph’s Pulitzer Prize finalist Gruesome Playground Injuries. Neil Pepe (American Buffalo) is set to direct the play.
“I have known and loved Rajiv Joseph’s work for years and am thrilled to be directing this seminal play,” Pepe said. “To have the opportunity to work with these two extraordinary actors, Kara Young and Nicholas Braun, is a gift.”
This role marks Young’s return to the theater after her historic win at the 2025 Tony Awards for being the first Black performer to win a Tony two years in a row. As for Braun, the three-time Emmy nominee recently premiered the film Splitsville, and Gruesome Playground Injuries will mark his New York stage debut.
Here is the show’s synopsis: “Over the course of 30 years, the lives of Kayleen (Young) and Doug (Braun) intersect at the most bizarre intervals, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together.”
Gruesome Playground Injuries first premiered in 2009 at the Alley Theatre. In 2011, an off-Broadway production opened.
This time, the production will make its way to the Lucille Lortel Theatre. “Off-Broadway is the beating heart of New York and there is no more thrilling place in the world to present a play than the storied and historic Lucille Lortel Theater,” the show’s producers, Seaview, Sue Wagner and John Johnson, said in a joint statement. “It has been the honor of a lifetime to produce plays with and at The Lortel over the last two years, and we cannot wait for audiences to have the opportunity to revisit Rajiv Joesph’s staggering, transporting, timeless and healing work this fall on Christopher Street.”
The show will debut on Friday, Nov. 7, with limited performances that run through Sunday, Dec. 2.