The Present on Broadway: Show Is Now Closed

Regular Price Tickets
Icon Image
Secondary Market

The Present Summary

  • Show Status: Closed
  • Genre: Play
  • The Present is 3 Hours long, including an intermission of 15 Minutes
  • 7 Shows per week
  • Previews Began: December 17, 2016
  • Show Opened : January 8, 2017
  • Show Closed: March 19, 2017

Upton’s adaptation of Chekhov's The Present is set in Russia in the 1990s in the post-Perestroika period. The Present takes place at an old country house, and the central female character is a once-wealthy, yet still independent widow named Anna Petrovna, played by Cate Blanchett.

What's The Present Like?

The Present is a new adaptation of the great Russian playwright Anton Chekov’s first large-scale, but infrequently performed play, Platonov. The story is centered around Anna's 40th birthday weekend followed by the effects of the characters' choices. The other leading male protagonist is named Platonov, a former schoolteacher who is beloved by four women in the play, including Anna. Platonov is played by Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge), who co-starred with Cate Blanchett four years ago in the Lincoln Center Festival production of Uncle Vanya, also adapted by Andrew Upton. While Blanchett has appeared on the New York and Sydney stages many times, The Present will be her Broadway debut, as well as the Broadway debut for Roxburgh.

Is The Present Good for Kids?

Due to coarse language, gunshots, adult themes and smoke effects, this show is appropriate for children over the age of 12. Broadway theatres do no allow children under the age of four.

The Present on Broadway Background



This production of The Present is brilliantly conceived, directed and performed and is an historic adaptation of a lesser-known Chekhovian drama. Originally written in 1878, the play was rejected by the Russian actress for whom he had written it, and it was not published until 1923. Since then, it has gone by the name Platonov in the West. In 2015, Andrew Upton wrote a new adaptation of Platonov, which he called The Present.

Upton is married to the actress Cate Blanchett, who also stars in the production, and who received the 2016 Oscar nomination for her work in the film Carol Blanchett has previously won two Academy Awards for The Aviator and Blue Jamine. Upton and Blanchett also served as co-artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company from 2008 to 2012, and then Upton continued on in the post until stepping down this past September. The play also stars Richard Roxburgh as Platonov, and additional casting will be announced.

The Present had its world premiere at the Sydney Theatre Company in the summer of 2015, receiving wide acclaim. The production is directed by John Crowley, a revered director of stage and screen who recently directed the film Brooklyn, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Theatre Information

Ethel Barrymore Theatre

243 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10019
Seats: 1,058
Entrance: 47th Street, between 8th and Broadway
Theatre Information

Ethel Barrymore Theatre Seating Chart

The Present Marquee

The Present Marquee

Cast Members

Anna Petrova
Cate Blanchett
Platonov
Richard Roxburgh
Maria
Anna Bamford
Osip
Andrew Buchanan
Yegor
David Downer
Kirrill
Eamon Farren
Alexei
Martin Jacobs
Dimitri
Brandon McClelland
Sophia
Jacqueline McKenzie
Ivan
Marshall Napier
Sasha
Susan Prior
Sergei
Chris Ryan
Nikolai
Toby Schmitz

Producers

Sydney Theatre Company

Stuart Thompson

Production Credits

Direction
John Crowley
Scenic + Costume Design
Alice Babidge
Lighting Design
Nick Schlieper
Sound Design
Stefan Gregory
Book
Anton Chekhov
Sound + Original Music
Stefan Gregory

Creative Team

General Manager
David Turner at Thompson Turner Productions
Press Agent
Boneau Bryan-Brown