Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing!
by Clifford Odets
directed by Tyne Rafaeli
ON BROADWAY AT THE
SAMUEL J. FRIEDMAN THEATRE
Performances begin December 2026
Single tickets will be available later this year. The only way to secure your seat today is to become an MTC Subscriber or Patron.
Starring Tony Award® winner Danny Burstein, Tony®/Emmy Award nominee Jessica Hecht, and Tony Award® nominee Jeremy Shamos, this bold new production of Clifford Odets’ timeless masterpiece tells a story about aspiration, family and how to live with dignity in America. It’s the 1930s, and the Bronx is a furnace. New ideas clash with the old amidst the poverty and shattered promises of the Great Depression. And three generations of the Berger family, trapped inside their cramped tenement, struggle to hold different visions of an American dream and the Jewish experience. Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, this classic battle between hope and disillusionment returns to Broadway, speaking thrillingly to the crises of the present moment.
Cast
Danny Burstein
Uncle Morty
Awake and Sing! marks Danny’s 22nd Broadway production; others include Marjorie Prime, Gypsy, Pictures From Home, Moulin Rouge!, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Golden Boy, Follies, South Pacific and The Drowsy Chaperone. Off-Broadway: Describe the Night A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Talley’s Folly; Mrs. Farnsworth; All in the Timing; etc. Film includes tick, tick, BOOM; The Same Storm; Indignation; The Family Fang; Blackhat; Transamerica; Molli and Max in the Future; etc. TV: Danny has had recurring roles on “Cry Wolf” (upcoming), “Julia,” “Tokyo Vice,” “The Good Fight,” “Evil,” and Martin Scorsese’s “Boardwalk Empire.” Guest stars: “Will Trent,” “Winning Time,” “Tales of the City,” “Fosse/Verdon,” “The Blacklist,” “Law and Order” and many others. He has voiced characters for many animated series including “Long Story Short,” “Dora the Explorer,” “F is for Family,” “Central Park,” etc. Danny is the recipient of 2020’s Drama League Award, one Tony Award (nine nominations), three Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards and four Grammy Award nominations.
Jessica Hecht
Bessie Berger
Jessica Hecht is currently appearing on Broadway in Dog Day Afternoon (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination). Her recent appearances on Broadway include Manhattan Theatre Club’s Eureka Day, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award, and Summer, 1976, which also earned her a Tony Award nomination. She has appeared on Broadway in productions of The Price opposite Mark Ruffalo; Fiddler on the Roof opposite Danny Burstein; The Assembled Parties at MTC opposite Judith Light; Harvey opposite Jim Parsons; After the Fall opposite Carla Gugino; The Last Night of Ballyhoo opposite Paul Rudd; Brighton Beach Memoirs opposite Laurie Metcalf; Julius Caesar opposite Denzel Washington; and A View from the Bridge opposite Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in A Mother, a play she co-conceived for Baryshnikov Arts; King Lear opposite John Lithgow and Annette Bening; Stage Kiss opposite Sandra Oh; Three Sisters opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal; The Orchard opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov; Letters from Max at Signature Theatre; and Admissions at Lincoln Center Theater, for which she received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination and an Obie Award. Her notable television appearances include her Emmy-nominated performance in the Netflix series “Special,” and her roles on “Tokyo Vice,” “Super Pumped,” “The Sinner,” “The Loudest Voice,” “Dickinson,” “The Boys,” and “Succession.” She is also recognizable to television audiences for her work on the iconic television series “Friends” and “Breaking Bad.” She can currently be seen opposite Kevin Kline in the new series “American Classic.” Her film performances include Eleanor the Great, which debuted at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, as well as A+, Anesthesia, J. Edgar, The Grey Zone, The Sitter, My Soul to Take, Dan in Real Life, Sideways, The Atlantic City Story, The Sunlit Night, and The Home.
Jeremy Shamos
Myron Berger
Jeremy Shamos was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Clybourne Park, for which he also received Lucille Lortel Award and Drama League Award nominations. His other stage appearances include the Broadway productions of Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, Richard Greenberg’s The Assembled Parties at MTC, and David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, as well as the off-Broadway productions of the original Gutenberg! The Musical; If I Forget (Drama Desk Award nomination); Animals Out of Paper (Drama Desk Award nomination); The Qualms; The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged); Dinner with Friends (Lucille Lortel Award); Engaged, for which he received the Obie Award; and Stephen Sondheim’s final musical Here We Are.
His work on film and television has provided the opportunity to collaborate on many acclaimed features, including Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Bad Education, The Big Sick, and Birdman, and many prestigious series including “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Better Call Saul,” “Succession,” “Dead Ringers,” “Nurse Jackie,” and “Fosse/Verdon.” For his role in the ensemble casts of “The Gilded Age” and “Only Murders in the Building,” he earned SAG Award nominations for his work on both award-winning series. He is an MFA graduate of New York University.
Danny Burstein
Uncle Morty
Jessica Hecht
Bessie Berger
Jeremy Shamos
Myron Berger
Creative
Clifford Odets
Playwright
Clifford Odets began his career in 1931 as an actor and then playwright for New York’s The Group Theatre. His first play for the Group, Waiting for Lefty (1935), immediately launched him as the most celebrated American playwright of the 1930s. Five major Broadway productions of his plays followed in that decade and introduced theatre audiences to subject matter and language that had never before been heard on the American stage. This work deeply influenced generations of American playwrights to follow. Odets’ other best-known plays include Paradise Lost, Golden Boy, Rocket to the Moon, Clash by Night, The Big Knife, and The Flowering Peach. Screenplay credits include None but the Lonely Heart, Humoresque, Sweet Smell of Success, and The Story on Page One. He also directed both None but the Lonely Heart and The Story on Page One. Two more of Odets’ greatest plays will be revived this fall: Josh O’Connor will be seen starring in a production of Golden Boy at the Almeida Theatre in London and Waiting for Lefty will be produced in New York by the Classic Stage Company.
Tyne Rafaeli
Director
Tyne Rafaeli directs for stage and screen. Recent stage productions include Brian Watkins’ Weather Girl (St. Ann’s Warehouse and London’s Soho Theatre); Matthew Libby’s Data (The Lucille Lortel Theatre); Anna Zeigler’s Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) (The Public Theater); Em Weinstein’s Becoming Eve (New York Theatre Workshop); Brian Watkins’ Epiphany (Lincoln Center Theater); Jen Silverman’s Spain (Second Stage); Keith Bunin’s The Coast Starlight (Lincoln Center Theater); The Thing About Jellyfish adapted by Keith Bunin (Berkeley Rep); and Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons) and Power Strip (Lincoln Center Theater). Recent TV directing includes “The Beast in Me” starring Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys for Netflix and “Tell Me Lies” for Hulu, on which she was also an Executive Producer. Recent audio directing includes Madam Ram starring Toni Colette and The Miranda Obsession starring Rachel Brosnahan for Audible. Multiple Drama Desk, Drama League nominations.
Bryan and Dayna Lee
Producers
Bryan and Dayna Lee are a husband-and-wife team and the founders of AF Creative Media, a three-time Tony Award and two-time Olivier Award-winning production company. Currently represented on Broadway by Giant starring John Lithgow. West End/UK: Giant (Olivier Award), Fiddler on the Roof (Olivier Award), Guess How Much I Love You? (Royal Court), Man to Man starring Tilda Swinton (Royal Court). Off-Broadway: Caroline (MCC Theater), Here There Are Blueberries (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Lucille Lortel Award). Brian and Dayna have a multi-year, exclusive First Look Deal with the Royal Court Theatre in London. Brian and Dayna run a popular Instagram blog called @artsfoodfamily with over 130k followers.
Nicole Kramer and Stephanie Kramer
Producers
Nicole Kramer and Stephanie Kramer are Tony and Olivier Award–winning producers and the mother-daughter team behind SBK Productions. They are currently represented on Broadway by Giant starring John Lithgow. Broadway: Sunset Boulevard (Tony Award), Leopoldstadt (Tony Award), Jagged Little Pill, Angels in America (Tony Award), Hand to God, and It’s Only a Play. West End: Giant (Olivier Award) and Company. Upcoming Projects: Begin Again, based on the John Carney film, which will have its world premiere at The Old Globe in September 2026, and Practical Magic, based on the novel and Warner Bros. Film.
Clifford Odets
Playwright
Tyne Rafaeli
Director
Bryan and Dayna Lee
Producers
Nicole Kramer and Stephanie Kramer
Producers