2026 PULITZER PRIZE
AND
2026 TONY AWARD WINNER
BESS WOHL
RETURNS TO BROADWAY THIS SEASON WITH HER PLAY
“ S M A L L M O U T H S O U N D S ”
STARRING
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
MARTIN FREEMAN
GRETA LEE
SARAH PAULSON
ISAAC POWELL
JULIA ROBERTS
PAUL RUDD
New York, NY (September 8, 2026) – Producers Scott Rudin and Barry Diller announced today that 2026 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Bess Wohl will return to Broadway next spring with her play Small Mouth Sounds, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (who was also announced this morning as director of the upcoming Downstate). The complete cast will include Martin Freeman, Greta Lee, Sarah Paulson, Isaac Powell, Julia Roberts, and Paul Rudd.
Small Mouth Sounds will begin performances on Thursday, February 18, 2027, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with opening night set for Thursday, March 18. Ticketing details will be released later today.
With the arrival of Liberation, winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play, Wohl cemented her place as one of the most innovative playwrights working in the theater. In Small Mouth Sounds, Wohl has undertaken perhaps her most audacious formal experiment: a play set at a silent retreat where the participants find it surprisingly difficult to stay quiet.
Six strangers arrive at an upstate spiritual retreat determined to escape their problems, turn inward, and transform their lives. Spoiler: it does not go according to plan. As personal baggage spills everywhere, personalities clash, and unexpected desires take hold, Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds is revealed as both a startlingly original and profoundly affecting play about the search for wholeness in a broken world.
Small Mouth Sounds will be the second play of the Broadway season directed by Joe Mantello, following Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner Bruce Norris’s Downstate, which was announced earlier today.
The creative team for Small Mouth Sounds includes Tony Award-winning scenic designer Chloe Lamford, Moliere Award-winning costume designer An D’Huys, two-time Tony Award-winning lighting designer Jack Knowles, Olivier Award-winning sound designer Tom Gibbons. Music is by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, with movement by JA Collective.
BIOGRAPHIES
Martin Freeman (Jan). Film: The Hobbit trilogy; Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Black Panther; Captain America: Civil War; Miller’s Girl; Queen of Bones; The Operative; Cargo; Ghost Stories; Love Actually; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Hot Fuzz; The World’s End; Shaun of the Dead; Whiskey Tango Foxtrot; Ode to Joy; Confetti. Upcoming film: The Surgeon, written and directed by Roshan Sethi; A Long Winter, written and directed by Andrew Haigh; Flavia, directed by Bharat Nalluri. Television: “Only Murders in the Building” (new season beginning December 2026); “Sherlock” (Emmy Award; BAFTA Award); “Fargo” (Golden Globe and Emmy nominations); “The Office” (two BAFTA nominations); “The Responder” (two BAFTA TV Award nominations; executive producer); “Breeders” (co-creator and executive producer); “Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials”; “Secret Invasion”; “Angelyne”; “A Confession.” Stage: The Fifth Step; The Dumb Waiter; Labour of Love; Richard III; Clybourne Park; Kosher Harry; Blue Eyes and Heels. Freeman is an Emmy, BAFTA and Actor Award-winning actor whose acclaimed career spans film, television and stage.
Greta Lee (Alicia). Golden Globe nominee Greta Lee is known for her acclaimed performances across film, television and theater. Most recently, Lee starred in Kent Jones’s Late Fame alongside Willem Dafoe, Louis Leterrier’s The Last House for Netflix opposite Wagner Moura, and voiced Lilypad in Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5. She will next be seen in Honeymoon/Funeral alongside Rebecca Ferguson, as well as Danya Taymor’s Jonah. In 2025, Lee starred in Disney’s Tron: Ares, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House Of Dynamite, and Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show,” earning Emmy and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for her performance as Stella Bak. She previously starred in Apple TV+’s comedy series “The Studio.” Lee received Gotham, Critics’ Choice, and Golden Globe Award nominations for her leading role in A24’s 2023 film Past Lives, written and directed by Celine Song. Other past credits include Natasha Lyonne’s Netflix comedy “Russian Doll” and the Amy Poehler/Tina Fey Universal feature Sisters. She also starred as Homeless Heidi in the HBO comedy “High Maintenance,” and appeared on HBO’s “Girls” and Comedy Central’s “Inside Amy Schumer” and “Broad City.” Lee made her Broadway debut in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in 2007.
Sarah Paulson (Judy) is a Tony, Emmy, and SAG Award-winning actress. Broadway: Appropriate (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award); The Glass Menagerie; Collected Stories; The Sisters Rosensweig. Off-Broadway: Talley’s Folly. Film: 12 Years a Slave; Carol; Ocean’s 8; The Post; Glass; Bird Box; Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Upcoming: Closing Night (premiering at TIFF 2026).Television: “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story” (Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, SAG Award, Critics’ Choice Award, TCA Award); “American Horror Story” (Five Emmy Award nominations, two Critics’ Choice Awards); “Game Change” (Emmy Award nomination); “Mrs. America;” “Ratched” (Golden Globe Award nomination); “Impeachment: American Crime Story” (Emmy Award nomination); “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (Emmy Award nomination); “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (Golden Globe Award nomination).
Isaac Powell (Rodney) has most recently been seen in A24 and Aidan Zamiri’s The Moment, Sam Mendes/Armando Iannucci’s HBO comedy series “The Franchise,” and Ryan Murphy’s FX series “The Beauty.” Up next, Isaac can be seen guest starring in Season 2 of “Adults,” which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2023, Isaac appeared in Susanna Fogel’s Cat Person, Bill Oliver’s Our Son, and Celine Song’s Past Lives. He can also be seen in “American Horror Story: NYC,” Amazon’s “Modern Love,” and Stephen Chbosky’s Dear Evan Hansen for Universal. On Broadway, Isaac starred as “Tony” in Ivo Van Hove’s production of West Side Story (OCC Award, Drama League Award nomination) and as “Daniel” in Michael Arden’s production of Once on This Island. He holds a BFA in Acting from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Julia Roberts (Joan). An Academy Award® winner for Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts has appeared in many of Hollywood’s most successful films and worked with the industry’s most esteemed directors, while her films have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide. She first came to the attention of audiences with her critically acclaimed role in Mystic Pizza. Shortly thereafter, with Steel Magnolias, she received her first Academy Award® nomination. Her next film, Pretty Woman, was the top-grossing film of 1990 and brought Roberts her second Academy Award® nomination. In 1997, she starred in the box-office smash, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and soon after, opposite Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris in Stepmom. In 1999, she starred in two box-office hits: Notting Hill, co-starring Hugh Grant, and Runaway Bride. Since 2000’s Erin Brockovich, she has starred in three films by director Steven Soderbergh: Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, and Full Frontal. In Summer 2010, Roberts starred in Eat, Pray, Love, based on the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert. She received another Academy Award® nomination – as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Award – for her performance in August: Osage County, released in December 2013. Roberts received Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for her role in The Normal Heart, which premiered on HBO in May 2014. In 2017, Roberts starred in the hit movie Wonder, alongside Jacob Tremblay and Owen Wilson. In 2018, she starred in Amazon’s TV series “Homecoming,” for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award. She also starred in the film Ben is Back, with Lucas Hedges. In Spring 2022, Roberts starred, opposite Sean Penn, as Martha Mitchell in Starz’s limited thriller series “Gaslit,” inspired by Watergate. That fall, she starred opposite George Clooney in the romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise. In 2023, Roberts headlined the apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind, directed by Sam Esmail and based on the novel by Rumaan Alam. She starred opposite Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke in the Netflix film, which earned critical acclaim for its provocative look at modern society and how communication collapses during crises. In 2025, Roberts starred in Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt, alongside Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield. She will next star alongside Elizabeth Olsen, Eddie Redmayne, and Brian Tyree Henry in the Warner Bros. film Panic Carefully, slated for release in April 2027.
Paul Rudd (Ned) is an Emmy, SAG and Golden Globe-nominated actor, producer and writer. He recently starred in John Carney’s Power Ballad, A24’s Friendship and Sony Pictures’ Anaconda. Other notable film credits include Anchorman, This Is 40, Knocked Up, I Love You, Man, Role Models, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Clueless, Wet Hot American Summer, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. On television, Rudd received Emmy and SAG Award nominations for “Only Murders in the Building” and Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Living with Yourself. His television credits also include “The Shrink Next Door,” “Friends,” “Parks and Recreation” and “Party Down,” which he co-created and executive produced. On stage, Rudd starred on Broadway in Grace, Three Days of Rain, Twelfth Night and The Last Night of Ballyhoo. His other stage credits include The Shape of Things in London and New York, Bash in New York and Los Angeles, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night in London’s West End. He will next reprise his role as Scott Lang/Ant-Man in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday and star in Tom McCarthy’s The Statement, premiering at the 2026 New York Film Festival.
Bess Wohl (Author) is a playwright and filmmaker whose plays have been produced on and off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. Wohl received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best New Play for her most recent play Liberation. Her other plays include Grand Horizons (Broadway, Tony Nomination), Barcelona (West End), Camp Siegfried, Make Believe, Continuity, American Hero, Touched, In, Cats Talk Back, and the original musical Pretty Filthy. Her plays have been recognized with a variety of awards; among them the GLAAD Media Award, the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner, the Drama Desk, the Drama League, and the Outer Critics' Circle. Bess’ film Baby Ruby premiered at TIFF in 2022 starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harrington and was released by Magnolia Pictures. Wohl has developed multiple TV and film projects and wrote for the Apple series “Extrapolations.” She is an alumna of Ars Nova’s PlayGroup, an Associate Artist with The Civilians, and the current Judith Champion fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club. BA, Harvard; MFA, Yale School of Drama.
Joe Mantello (Director). As a director: Death of a Salesman (Tony Award), Little Bear Ridge Road; Here We Are; Grey House; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Hillary and Clinton; Three Tall Women; The Boys in the Band; Blackbird; The Humans; Airline Highway; The Last Ship; Casa Valentina; I'll Eat You Last; Other Desert Cities; Pal Joey; 9 to 5; Laugh Whore; Three Days of Rain; Glengarry Glen Ross; Wicked; Assassins (Tony Award); Take Me Out (Tony Award); Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Love! Valour! Compassion! As an actor on Broadway: The Glass Menagerie, The Normal Heart (Tony nomination), Angels in America (Tony nomination). As an actor on television: “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans,” “American Horror Story: NYC,” “American Horror Story: Hollywood,” “The Watcher,” and “The Normal Heart” (Emmy Award nomination). He is the recipient of Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Clarence Derwent, Obie, Joe A. Callaway, and SDC’s “Mr. Abbott” Awards. He is a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame.
JA Collective (Movement) is founded by Los Angeles-born artists Jordan Johnson and Aidan Carberry. They first gained widespread acclaim through collaborations with the band half•alive, and as part of their partnership became the first dancers to perform behind NPR's Tiny Desk. Additional collaborations include those with: Talking Heads, Future, Paul McCartney, Frank Ocean, Reggie Watts, Ryan Beatty, Margaret Qualley, Mike Mills, Taika Waititi, Olivia Wilde, Dominic Fike, Bishop Briggs, Saoirse Ronan, Brockhampton, and Ivo van Hove. Awards include prizes at RIDCC, First Prize at MasDanza, Runner-Up at the Palm Desert Choreography Festival, and the Critics’ Choice Award at Hannover Choreography Competition
38. In addition to their own work, they have toured internationally as dancers under the curation of William Forsythe in his Friends of Forsythe.
Chloe Lamford (Scenic Design). Theatre includes: Death of a Salesman (Tony Award) Cirque du Soleil’s Alizé (Berlin); The Estate, Phaedra, John (Co-Director), Othello, Antipodes (National Theatre); Wild Rose (Lyceum Edinburgh); Mrs Warren’s Profession, Next to Normal (West End); Hillary and Clinton (Broadway); The Cane, Pity, The Song Project, Grimly Handsome, Gun Dog, (Royal Court); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Almeida); Julie, De Maiden (ITA Amsterdam); The American Clock (The Old Vic); 1984(West End, Broadway). Opera and ballet credits include: Innocence (The Met, San Francisco, RBO, DNO, FNO, Aix-en-Provence); Against the Tide (RBO); Theodora, Rusalka (RBO); Traplord (180 Studios); La bohème (ENO); The Handmaid’s Tale (Royal Danish Opera, San Francisco, FNO).
An D’Huys (Costume Design). Born in Belgium, An studied fashion design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and was part of the design team at Ann Demeulemeester for over eleven years. Recent credits include: Julie and The Architect (ITA); Hamlet, Tartuffe (Comédie Française); All My Sons (Wyndham’s Theatre); La Ménagerie de Verre (Odéon-Théâtre); Jesus Christ Superstar (Albert Verlinde Theatre); Opening Night (Gielgud Theatre); A Little Life (Savoy Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival); Network (NT, Broadway); Rebel Rebel, Guernica Guernica, I Did It My Way (Ruhrtriennale Bochum); Fanny and Alexander (La Monnaie); Medea (ITA and BAM); All About Eve (Noël Coward Theatre); Tristan and Isolde, Cosi fan Tutte (Opera Ballet Flanders); Salome (Stichting National Opera); West Side Story (Broadway); Dead Man Walking (The Met Opera); Don Giovanni (Opéra National de Paris and The Met); Hedda Gabler (National Theatre and tour); The Six Brandenburg Concertos (Rosas) and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogonny (Dutch National Opera, Festival Aix-en-Provence).
Jack Knowles (Lighting Design) won the 2026 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Death of a Salesman and the 2025 Tony and Drama Desk Awards and 2024 Olivier Award for Sunset Blvd. Further credits include Every Brilliant Thing, Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York), Patriots, Caroline, or Change (Broadway); 1536, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (West End); London Tide, Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre); Hamlet (Royal Shakespeare Company); Angel’s Bone (English National Opera); Spring Awakening, Carmen Disruption (Almeida).
Tom Gibbons (Sound Design) is a sound designer and composer of plays and a sound designer of musicals working in London, on Broadway and internationally. He has won an Olivier Award and a Dutch Musical Theatre Award, and been nominated at the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics’ Circle Awards. Recent work includes: Game of Thrones: The Mad King (RSC, West End): The Last Ship (International): All My Sons, Every Brilliant Thing (Broadway, West End); The Seagull (Barbican); Dear England (National Theatre, West End); Opening Night (Gielgud); Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Oedipus (West End and Broadway); Dead Man Walking (The Metropolitan Opera); Here We Are (The Shed, New York, National Theatre); Jesus Christ Superstar (DeLaMar Theatre, Amsterdam); Best of Enemies (Noël Coward Theatre, Young Vic); Grey House (Lyceum Theatre, Broadway); Good (West End); Hamlet, Oresteia, The Doctor (Park Avenue Armory, Almeida Theatre, West End); Animal Farm (UK tour); West Side Story, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Broadway); Cabaret (Göteborg Opera); Judas, Oedipus, The Doctor (International Theatre Amsterdam); The Antipodes, Home, I’m Darling, People, Places and Things (Winner for Best Sound Design, Olivier Awards 2016), Hedda Gabler, Sunset At The Villa Thalia; The Red Barn (National Theatre/West End); All About Eve (West End); Our Town (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Doctor, The Wild Duck (Almeida/West End); Madness of King George III (Nottingham Playhouse); Hexenjagd (Theater Basel); Mr Burns, 1984 (Almeida/West End/Broadway); Fanny and Alexander, The Lorax (Old Vic); A View From the Bridge (Young Vic/West End/Broadway); Obsession (International Theatre Amsterdam, Barbican); Passing Strange, Life of Galileo, Happy Days, A Season in the Congo, Disco Pigs (Young Vic); Les Miserables (Wermland Opera, Sweden); The Crucible (Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway); Anna Karenina (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Moderate Soprano, Elephants (Hampstead Theatre); White Devil, As You Like It (RSC); Translations, Plenty (Sheffield Crucible); After Life, The Absence of War, Romeo & Juliet (Headlong); Lion Boy (Complicite); Venus in Fur (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Henry IV, Julius Caesar (Donmar, St Ann’s Brooklyn); Manhunt, The End of History, Pah La, The Woods, Love Love Love (Royal Court).
Caroline Shaw (Original Score) is a musician who moves among numerous roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She works often in collaboration with others, as producer, composer, violinist, and vocalist. Shaw is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, an honorary doctorate from Yale, five Grammy Awards, and the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She received a Tony nomination for her work on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. She has written and produced for iconic artists and ensembles across the musical spectrum, including Rosalía, Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Tiler Peck, Nas, Kanye West, the LA Phil, the NY Phil, and others. Recent tv/film/stage scoring projects include Leonardo Da Vinci (Ken Burns/PBS), Julie Keeps Quiet (Leonardo Van Dijl), “Fleishman is in Trouble” (FX/Hulu), The Sky Is Everywhere (Josephine Decker/A24), vocal work with Rosalía (MOTOMAMI), The Crucible (Lyndsey Turner/National Theatre), Partita (Justin Peck/NYC Ballet), Moby Dick (Wu Tsang), and LIFE (Gandini Juggling/Merce Cunningham Trust). Current touring projects include shows with Sō Percussion, Ringdown, Attacca Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, Graveyards & Gardens, Gabriel Kahane, and Kamus Quartet. She was appointed to the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for Carnegie Hall’s 2026-2027 season.