Tony Award winner Jonathan Groff will return to Broadway this winter in The Amish Project, a solo play written by Jessica Dickey and directed by Sarna Lapine. Performances begin Wednesday, February 10, 2027, at the Broadhurst Theatre.
Producers Robert Ahrens and Tom Kirdahy announced the show and its star today. An official opening night is yet to be announced, and the design team will be announced shortly.
Coming off two very successful big-cast Broadway projects – Merrily We Roll Along and Just In Time – Groff will now go solo in The Amish Project, a play described by the production as “a deeply moving solo play about the astonishing power of compassion in the face of unimaginable loss.”
The synopsis: “When tragedy shatters a close-knit Amish community, what follows is an extraordinary act of grace that challenges everything we think we know about forgiveness. Inspired by true events that unfolded just minutes from where Groff grew up, The Amish Project is an intimate portrait of a place and a community channeled through a single performer. Written by acclaimed playwright Jessica Dickey (The Rembrandt, The Convent) and directed by Sarna Lapine (Call Me Izzy, Sunday in the Park with George), this remarkable story invites us to reflect on how, even in the darkest of hours, our shared humanity endures.”
Said Groff, “Twenty years ago this month, an unimaginable tragedy happened in a one room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Jessica Dickey wrote an astounding work of art in response. Sarna Lapine sent me The Amish Project last year and I was floored by the urgency and potent poetry of Jessica’s writing as she dives headfirst into the many aftershocks of this horrific event and explores the idea that sometimes the most radical human act is forgiveness. I am profoundly grateful to be bringing Jessica’s play to Broadway alongside Sarna and this incredible team.”
The Amish Project debuted to critical acclaim at the New York International Fringe Festival and was developed at the Cherry Lane Theatre before premiering Off Broadway at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in 2009. It has since become Dickey’s most-produced play, with productions at the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis), Milwaukee Rep, American Theater Company (Chicago) and City Theatre (Pittsburgh), among others at theaters around the world.
Producers Ahrens and Kirdahy said in a statement, “We are honored to bring Jessica Dickey’s stirring and luminous play to Broadway, under the direction of the visionary Sarna Lapine. There is nothing quite like experiencing the singular Jonathan Groff live, and his humanity, generosity and gift for storytelling make this a deeply transporting night of theater that we are proud to share with audiences.”
Playwright Dickey said, “I wrote The Amish Project in the heartbreak of my twenties, grappling with how to make a meaningful life as an artist in a world capable of such violence. The play launched my writing career and changed my life. To return to it now, all these years later, when its questions feel as urgent as ever, is profoundly moving. And to do so alongside Jonathan Groff, whose personal connection to this story is matched by his staggering talent, and the extraordinary Sarna Lapine, with the steadfast belief and care of Robert Ahrens and Tom Kirdahy, is a gift I could never have imagined. I can’t wait for Broadway audiences to see it—I’ll be the playwright in the back laughing and crying.”
Director Lapine said, “When I first read Jessie’s play, I was blown away by it. She has channeled something extraordinary about a community, a community in mourning, a community in conversation. It is a piece that stays with you for days, weeks, months, years after you’ve sat with it. Like the framework of a well-built one-room schoolhouse, the writing is precise, lean, and strong, illuminating resilience in the face of fragility, and asks, how does one forgive the unforgivable?”