EMMY AWARD® WINNER, SAG®, & GOLDEN GLOBE® AWARD WINNER
AYO EDEBIRI
&
ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE & TWO-TIME GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER
DON CHEADLE
TO MAKE THEIR BROADWAY DEBUTS IN
THE FIRST EVER NEW YORK REVIVAL OF
“PROOF”
THE TONY AWARD® AND PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PLAY
WRITTEN BY DAVID AUBURN
DIRECTED BY TONY AWARD WINNER THOMAS KAIL
New York, NY (August 21, 2025) – Emmy®, SAG®, and Golden Globe Award® winner Ayo Edebiri and Academy Award® nominee, two-time Golden Globe Award winner, and 11-time Emmy Award nominee Don Cheadle will make their Broadway debuts next spring in the first ever New York revival of David Auburn’s Tony Award® and Pulitzer Prize®-winning play Proof, directed by Tony Award winner Thomas Kail, and produced by Mike Bosner and Kail.
Proof will play a strictly limited engagement at a Shubert theater to be announced with preview performances beginning Tuesday, March 31, 2026, ahead of a Thursday, April 16, 2026 opening night. To sign up for more information about Proof including ticketing details, please visit www.proofbroadway.com/.
Edebiri is an acclaimed actor, writer, producer, director and comedian who won an Emmy, SAG and Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of ‘Sydney’ in FX’s hit series “The Bear.” She recently received her third consecutive Emmy nomination for acting and her first ever directing nomination for her work on the S3 episode “Napkins.” Additional film and television credits include Inside Out 2, Bottoms, Theater Camp, Opus, “Abbott Elementary,” “What We Do In The Shadows,” and “Big Mouth.” This fall, she stars in Luca Guadagnino’s new film After The Hunt.
Cheadle is one of the most celebrated actors of his generation. With a career that is entering its fourth decade, he has appeared in countless dramas, comedies, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as ‘James Rhodes’ (aka War Machine). Film highlights include Boogie Nights, Hotel Rwanda, Stephen Soderbergh’s Oceans trilogy, Crash, and Miles Ahead, which he also directed and produced. His starring roles on television include “Picket Fences,” “House of Lies,” “Black Monday,” and “The Wonder Years.” Cheadle made his New York stage debut in the Public Theater’s 2001 production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog. Regionally and Off-Broadway, he has appeared at the Guthrie, Shakespeare in the Park, and the Goodman.
The creative team for Proof will also include Academy Award and Emmy Award winner Kris Bowers (original music), Teresa L. Williams (scenic design), Tony Award winner Dede Ayite (costume design), Amanda Zieve (lighting design), and Daniel Swee, CSA (casting director). Baseline Theatrical serves as general manager for the production.
A daughter’s genius. A father’s legacy. A story of love, logic, and loss. Edebiri and Cheadle star in Proof, a searing portrait of a family bound by brilliance.
Proof had its world premiere Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2000, becoming a sold-out smash and immediately transferred to Broadway where it received six Tony Award nominations and won three including Best Play and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play has been widely produced all over the country and internationally has received productions in London, Manila, Stockholm, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and others. Proof was adapted by Auburn into a feature film that was released by Miramax Films in 2005.
Additional casting, members of the design team, and ticketing information for Proof will be announced in the coming weeks.
BIOGRAPHIES
Ayo Edebiri (Catherine) is an award-winning actor, writer, producer, director, and comedian, who is a tour de force both in front of and behind the camera. Currently, Edebiri stars in FX’s, “The Bear,” which debuted in 2022 to critical acclaim, earning 13 Emmy nominations and ten wins, including Outstanding Comedy Series. Edebiri made her directorial debut in season three of “The Bear” and earned a Directors Guild of America Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series. For her masterful portrayal of sous-chef ‘Sydney,’ she won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (season one) and was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress (seasons two and three). She also received Critics Choice, SAG, and Golden Globe Awards for Best Lead Actress (season two) and was nominated again for season three. She also co-wrote episode four of the show’s fourth season, “Worms”, now streaming on Hulu. She recently voiced ‘Envy’ in Pixar’s Inside Out 2, the highest-grossing Pixar film of all time, and is currently in production on the Apple TV+ series “Prodigies,” opposite Will Sharpe. She will next be seen in director Luca Guadagnino’s highly anticipated feature, After The Hunt, alongside Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield.
Don Cheadle (Robert) is an acclaimed actor, producer, and director known for his versatile career across film, television, and the stage spanning over four decades. Cheadle gained early recognition for his role in Devil in a Blue Dress. He later earned widespread acclaim for his roles in Boogie Nights, Traffic, and Hotel Rwanda which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He directed, starred in, and produced Miles Ahead, inspired by the life of legendary musician Miles Davis. Additional film credits include Talk To Me, Crash, Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s series, Reign Over Me, The Guard, Out of Sight, Unstoppable, and he starred as ‘Colonel James Rhodes’ in six films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Television credits include “The Rat Pack,” “House of Lies,” “Black Monday” and “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist.” A graduate of CalArts BFA Theatre Program, Cheadle is an accomplished stage actor. He originated the role of ‘Booth’ in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize winning play Topdog/Underdog at New York’s Public Theatre under the direction of George C. Wolfe. Other stage credits include Leon, Lena and Lenz at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; Cymbeline at the New York Shakespeare Festival; ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore at Chicago’s Goodman Theater; and Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot at the Complex Theater in Hollywood. He also directed Cincinnati Man at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis and The Trip at Friends and Artists Theater in Hollywood. Cheadle was one of the producers of the Broadway musical A Strange Loop which was nominated for 11 Tony Awards winning Best Musical.
David Auburn (Playwright) is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and director. His plays include Summer 1976 (MTC/Broadway), The Adventures of Augie March (Court, Chicago), Lost Lake (MTC), The Columnist (MTC/Broadway), and Proof (2001 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award). Film work includes The Girl in the Park (writer/director), Georgetown, Proof, and The Lake House. He is Associate Artistic Director at the Berkshire Theatre Group, where he has directed Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Dracula, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Petrified Forest, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Anna Christie, and A Delicate Balance, among other plays. Other directing credits include Long Day's Journey into Night (Court, Chicago); and the Off-Broadway world premiere of Michael Weller’s Side Effects (MCC). He is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, where he teaches screenwriting. Guggenheim Fellowship, 1998-1999.
Thomas Kail (Director & Producer). Broadway directing credits include Sweeney Todd, Hamilton, Freestyle Love Supreme, In the Heights, Lombardi, and Magic/Bird. Off-Broadway selected directing credits include the world premieres of Hamilton, Dry Powder, Tiny Beautiful Things, Kings, The Wrong Man, In the Heights, Broke-ology, When I Come to Die, and Daphne’s Dive. Broadway producing credits include Sweeney Todd, Derren Brown: Secret, and Freestyle Love Supreme. Television directing and producing credits include “We Were the Lucky Ones” and “Up Here” on Hulu, “Hamilton” on Disney+, “Fosse/Verdon” on FX, and “Grease: Live” on Fox. He is a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor and is a graduate of Wesleyan University.
Mike Bosner (Producer) is the producer of Shucked, the Tony Award nominated Best Musical that played Broadway, London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, and is starting the second year of its North American Tour. His other producing credits include the Tony, Olivier, and Grammy-winning smash Beautiful – The Carole King Musical with then partners, Paul Blake and SONY ATV Music Publishing, and the 2017 Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard starring Glenn Close. He is developing the stage adaptation of the hit film Ten Things I Hate About You in partnership with Buena Vista Theatrical featuring a score by Carly Rae Jepsen & Ethan Gruska, a book by Lena Dunham & Jessica Huang, with Christopher Wheeldon directing and choreographing. He was recently elected to The Broadway League’s Board Of Governors and in 2023, was named one of Crains’ 40 Under 40.