The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) announces the first major New York  revival of Lorraine Hanberry’sThe Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman at the BAM Harvey Theater beginning February 4 and opening February 23, 2023.

Oscar Isaac in the press room of the 2020 / 92nd Annual Academy Awards at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Los Angeles, February 9, 2020 | usage worldwide (Newscom TagID: dpaphotosfour394189.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

Oscar Isaac (Moon Night, Scenes from a Marriage) and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Dead for a Dollar) star in Hansberry’s sweeping drama of identity, idealism, and love.

The A Raisin in the Sun playwright invites us into Greenwich Village in the 60s, crafting a razor-sharp portrait of a diverse group of friends whose loudly proclaimed progressive dreams can’t quite match up with reality. At the center are Sidney and Iris Brustein, fighting to see if their marriage—with all its crackling wit, passion, and petty cruelty—will be the final sacrifice to Sidney’s ideals.  Discover the “astonishing force” (The Chicago Tribune) of this stunning drama from one of America’s greatest playwrights when it finally returns to New Yor​k.

Following Hansberry’s meteoric debut with A Raisin in the Sun (1959), The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window debuted on Broadway in 1964 just before Ms. Hanberry’s death at the age of 34.  Since then, her play has never been produced on a major New York stage.  Director Anne Kauffman presented an acclaimed revival in Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2016.

“During the five years I spent working to produce the first Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun (in 2004), I fell in love with The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” said David Binder, BAM Artistic Director, “I shared this passion for Hansberry’s play with Anne and the two of us spent many, many years working together to mount the show in New York.  It’s an honor to present Lorraine’s beautiful, and rarely seen, play, finally, at BAM.”

“I’m thrilled that BAM will present this overshadowed work from one of America’s greatest playwrights,” said BAM President, Gina Duncan. “Hansberry died far too young but left us with a cherished few incredible works that are just as relevant now as they were when they were first written.”

“We are in dire need of Hansberry’s voice…we know so little of her and define her by one play: A Raisin in the Sun. Without a doubt Raisin is a masterpiece, but Hansberry’s evolution and contribution to this country’s culture, history and political motion stretches way beyond that astonishing accomplishment. Her work as an artist and activist is varied and deep,” said Anne Kauffman, Director.  “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, written four years after A Raisin in the Sun, embraces human complexity and frailty while aggressively shaking us free of our delusions, yet very few people know of it. Now they’ll know.”

The creative team and full company will be announced soon.

Tickets for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window go on sale Oct 11 (for BAM members/patrons) and Oct 21 (for the general public). To purchase tickets visit BAM.org or call BAM Ticket Services 718.636.4100.

In conjunction with the presentation of Hansberry’s play, BAM will create in-person and online experiences that showcase her legacy as an artist.  This will include talks, an exhibit in the Harvey Theater lobby overseen by BAM’s archivist Sharon Lehner, and online educational tools.

Lorraine Hansberry (Writer).  Born May 19, 1930, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.—died January 12, 1965, New York, New York, was American playwright whose A Raisin in the Sun (1959) was the first drama by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Hansberry was interested in writing from an early age and while in high school was drawn especially to the theatre. She attended the University of Wisconsin in 1948–50 and then briefly the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University (Chicago). After moving to New York City, she held various minor jobs and studied at the New School for Social Research while refining her writing skills. In 1958 she raised funds to produce her play A Raisin in the Sun, which opened in March 1959 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, meeting with great success. A penetrating psychological study of the personalities and emotional conflicts within a working-class black family in Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun was directed by actor Lloyd Richards, the first African American to direct a play on Broadway since 1907. It won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, and the film version of 1961 received a special award at the Cannes festival. Hansberry’s next play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, a drama of political questioning and affirmation set in Greenwich Village, New York City, where she had long made her home, had only a modest run on Broadway in 1964. Her promising career was cut short by her early death from pancreatic cancer. In 1969 a selection of her writings, adapted by Robert Nemiroff (to whom Hansberry was married from 1953 to 1964), was produced on Broadway as To Be Young, Gifted, and Black and was published in book form in 1970.

Oscar Isaac (Sidney Brustein) is an Award-Winning actor, producer and musician. Most recently, Isaac was nominated for a 2022 SAG and Emmy award for his role in the HBO and Hagai Levi adaption of Scenes from a Marriage. In 2016, he earned a Golden Globe for his role on the HBO miniseries Show Me A Hero as well as a Critics’ Choice nomination. In 2014, he scored an Independent Spirit Award and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of the title character in the Coen Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis. Past film and television credits include: A Most Violent Year (2014), Ex Machina (2015), Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015-2019), The Promise (2016), Operation Finale (2018), Triple Frontier (2019), At Eternity’s Gate (2019), The Card Counter (2021), Dune (2021), Moon Knight (2022). In 2017, Isaac headlined The Public Theater’s summer production of Hamlet with Sam Gold at the helm. Isaac appeared in Zoe Kazan’s We Live Here at Manhattan Theatre Club, as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and in Two Gentlemen of Verona, the latter productions for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. Additional theatre credits include Beauty of the Father (Manhattan Theatre Club), Grace (MCC Theater), When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba (Cherry Lane Theatre), Spinning into Butter (Hangar Theatre). In 2019, Isaac and his wife, writer and director Elvira Lind, created their Mad Gene Media production company. The first project under their banner, The Letter Room, was a short film written and directed by Lind and starring Isaac. It was nominated for a 2021 Academy Award.

Rachel Brosnahan (Iris Brustein) is an Award-Winning actress and producer.  She has won an Emmy with four nominations, two Golden Globes, two Critics’ Choice Award and three SAG Awards.  Brosnahan’s production company Scrap Paper Pictures signed a first look deal with Amazon Studios in 2019. She executive produced and starred in Amazon’s “Yearly Departed” season 1, as well as executive produced season 2. Brosnahan’s next film Dead for a Dollar also starring Willem Dafoe and Christoph Waltz, premiered at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival and is currently in theaters. In 2021, she was seen in the historical drama The Courier, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and in 2020, she was seen in I’m Your Woman, which she starred in and produced, directed by Julia Hart and co-written/produced with Jordan Horowitz. She is also attached to star and produce The Switch with Amblin Partners, as well as Helen and Teacher. Other film credits include Patriots’ Day, The Finest Hours, Louder Than Bombs, and Beautiful Creatures.  The fourth season of Amazon series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”, in which she plays the titular character, premiered in February 2022 and the show has been renewed for its fifth and final season. She had a breakout turn as Rachel Posner in Netflix’s groundbreaking series “House of Cards,” which earned her first Emmy nomination, as well as a SAG nomination for ‘Best Ensemble.’ On stage, Brosnahan last starred as Desdemona in Sam Gold’s off-Broadway production of Othello opposite Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo. She made her Broadway debut for the Roundabout Theater Company’s The Big Knife opposite Bobby Cannavale, Richard Kind and Marin Ireland.

Anne Kaufman (Director).   New York Philharmonic, Ars Nova, NYTW, Roundabout Theatre Company, Encores! Off-Center, Women’s Project, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, The Public, P73 Productions, New Georges, Vineyard Theater, LCT3, Yale Rep, Steppenwolf, Goodman Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Z Space, American Conservatory Theater and Berkeley Rep. She is a Resident Director at Roundabout Theater, Artistic Director of City Center’s Encores! Off-Center 2017-2020, Artistic Associate and Founding Member of The Civilians, a Clubbed Thumb Associate Artist and co-creator of the CT Directing Fellowship, a New Georges Associate Artist, an SDC Executive Board Member, Vice President and Trustee of SDCF. Kauffman’s awards include three Obies, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Exceptional Creativity from Lincoln Center, the Alan Schneider Director Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and the Joe A. Callaway. Co-creator of the Cast Album Project with Jeanine Tesori.