Michael Urie is heading back to Broadway in ‘Lost Lear,’ opposite Jessica Chastain and Corey Stoll. The production announced the casting on Wednesday. Previews start Monday, March 29, 2027, at the Booth Theatre, with opening night set for Friday, April 23.
Dublin-based playwright Dan Colley wrote the play and directs it, his Broadway debut in both jobs. “I never imagined, when we first made Lost Lear, that it would one day be on Broadway,” Colley said in a statement.
He added a second line for local fans. “I’m so thrilled to have the opportunity to share this piece with New York audiences,” Colley said.
Michael Urie’s Role in ‘Lost Lear’
Chastain plays Joy, a former actress living in a care home. The production’s synopsis sets up the premise: “As her grip on the present slips, Joy (Chastain), a former actress, is certain she’s back in rehearsal for King Lear.”
Urie plays her nurse, whose work takes him into Joy’s imagined rehearsals. “At her care home, her nurse (Urie) takes his cues from her, stepping into whatever role she needs him to play,” the synopsis says.
Stoll plays Conor, Joy’s estranged son. “When her estranged son Conor (Stoll) comes to visit, he’s ready to tell his mother what he’s spent years leaving unsaid,” it reads.
There’s a catch. “But if he wants her to hear him, he’ll have to step into the scene.”
Chastain’s engagement is 16 weeks. She earned a Tony nomination for A Doll’s House in 2023. Stoll received his nomination for Appropriate in 2024.
From Dublin to Broadway
‘Lost Lear’ premiered at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2022, according to the production. It has since toured the U.S., the UK and New Zealand.
At the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, it played the Traverse Theatre and won a Scotsman Fringe First award. The production says it collected 22 five-star reviews, and it quotes the Financial Times calling it “an astonishing piece of theatre.”
Daniel McAuley wrote the music. Scott Pask designs the production. Tickets are on sale through Telecharge via the official production website.
From ‘Torch Song’ to ‘Oh, Mary!’
Urie has spent recent years in some of Broadway’s queerest rooms. In 2018 he starred as Arnold, the lead, in the revival of Harvey Fierstein’s ‘Torch Song.’ The Daily Beast’s Tim Teeman reported at the time that Urie was baffled by its closing.
In 2025, he joined Jinkx Monsoon in Cole Escola’s ‘Oh, Mary!’ as Mary’s Teacher, Playbill reported. His other recent stage credits include ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ and ‘Spamalot.’ On TV, he plays Brian on Apple TV+’s ‘Shrinking,’ a role he unpacked for Gayety in June. The show’s next season also adds Dyllón Burnside.
Michael Urie and the Pride Plays Festival
Off the main stage, Urie co-founded Pride Plays, according to his ‘Lost Lear’ bio. In 2019, he and Doug Nevin co-produced the festival of LGBTQ+ play readings at Rattlestick for the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, CBS News reported.
In 2025, Pride Plays went to Washington, D.C., with Woolly Mammoth during WorldPride. “When Woolly Mammoth approached us about bringing Pride Plays to D.C. during WorldPride, it was before the election,” Urie told American Theatre.
“We were completely on board then, and are even more so now,” he said.
He called the D.C. run a “thrilling responsibility to bring queer theatre to the stages of our nation’s capital.”
Elsewhere on Broadway, Margaret Cho made her debut as the narrator of ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ on Nov. 3. ‘Lost Lear’ opens at the Booth on April 23, 2027, and more casting is still to come.
