Mark Ruffalo, Jessica Hecht Set for Performance of ‘Ironweed’ at BAM (Exclusive)

Caitlin Huston
·3 min read
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Mark Ruffalo is returning to the stage in a one-night performance of the new play Ironweed: An Evening of Art & Humanity.

Ruffalo will star opposite Jessica Hecht in a performance set for May 17 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The play is based on William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which was first published in 1983, and conceived of by Jodie Markell, who directs, and Brad Gilbert, who is the producer.

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In addition to the onstage cast, the performance will include excerpts from the audio recording of the play, which is set to be released in fall 2024 and features Norbert Leo Butz, Kristine Nielsen, John Magaro, Michael Potts, David Rysdahl, Frank Wood and Katie Erbe, as well as songs by Tom Waits and an original score by Tamar-kali.

The play is set on All Hallow’s Eve in Albany in 1938. Francis Phelan, played by Ruffalo, returns to his hometown after being homeless for many years and reckons with his journey up to that point and the possibility for redemption as he nears the end of his life. Hecht plays Francis’ friend Helen Archer, who once was a classical pianist at Vassar but accompanies Francis through town as his drinking companion.

The production is in early stages of development for an off-Broadway run. It comes to BAM as part of the theater’s renewed commitment to developing new works.

“This project taps into BAM’s longstanding support of the creativity of New York-based actors, directors, and writers working together on fresh, relevant adaptations and new works,” said BAM’s Interim Artistic Director Amy Cassello.

Following the May 17 performance, Ruffalo and Hecht will conduct an onstage conversation with advocates and experts on the unhoused crisis in the U.S., moderated by The New Yorker’s Vinson Cunningham.

Ruffalo’s recent projects induce Yorgos Lanthimos and Searchlight Pictures’ Poor Things and the Netflix miniseries All the Light We Cannot See. His upcoming projects include Warner Bros and Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi drama Mickey 17 and an untitled crime series on HBO by Mare of Easttown’s Brad Ingelsby.

However, Ruffalo’s roots are in theater. He first gained notice for his role in the 1996 off-Broadway production This Is Our Youth, which he recently reprised in a benefit reading. He made his Broadway debut in the Lincoln Center Theater’s 2006 revival of Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing! and starred in Arthur Miller’s The Price opposite Danny DeVito in 2017.

Hecht appeared opposite Ruffalo in The Price; her many other stage credits include Summer, 1976 opposite Laura Linney, Fiddler on the Roof opposite Danny Burstein, Brighton Beach Memoirs with Laurie Metcalf, Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington and A View From the Bridge with Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson. Her onscreen work includes starring in the Netflix series Special, as well as recurring roles in Dickinson, Succession, Friends and Breaking Bad. 

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