The Acclaimed, Award-Winning
Off-Broadway Cast Of
LIBERATION
Will Reprise Their Roles
In The Broadway Production
(New York, NY – August 11, 2025) – Producers Daryl Roth, Eva Price, Rachel Sussman and Jenny Gersten are thrilled to announce that the brilliant award-winning Off-Broadway cast of Liberation will reprise their performances when the production opens on Broadway this fall.
Liberation, the critically acclaimed new play by Tony Award nominee Bess Wohl, and directed by Tony Award nominee Whitney White, will open on October 28, 2025 at the James Earl Jones Theatre (138 West 48th Street). Previews for the 14-week limited engagement will begin on October 8, 2025.
The production comes to Broadway following its world premiere earlier this year at Roundabout Theatre Company, where it earned ecstatic reviews and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play.
The original Off-Broadway company of Liberation were honored by both the Drama Desk and the NY Drama Critic’s Circle for Best Ensemble Performance. The Wall Street Journal hailed the cast for their “uniformly terrific” performances.
The production will star Tony Award nominee Betsy Aidem (Broadway: Prayer for the French Republic, Leopoldstadt) as Margie, Audrey Corsa (TV: “Poker Face,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) as Dora, Kayla Davion (Broadway: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Waitress) as Joanne, Susannah Flood (Broadway: Birthday Candles, The Cherry Orchard) as Lizzie, Kristolyn Lloyd (Broadway: 1776, Dear Evan Hansen) as Celeste, Irene Sofia Lucio (Broadway/West End: Slave Play, Wit) as Isidora, Charlie Thurston (Off-Broadway: Here There Are Blueberries, Wedge Horse) as Bill, and Adina Verson (Broadway: Indecent; TV: “Only Murders in the Building”) as Susan. Understudies are LeeAnne Hutchison, Matthew Russell, and Kedren Spencer.
“This cast is pure magic. I am absolutely over the moon that audiences will get to experience their chemistry, their bravery, and their sheer joy as they work together as an ensemble,” playwright Bess Wohl said. “This is acting at its finest – bold, hilarious, and deeply felt. I’m so grateful to them for making my words sing and shine.”
“It is only this cast, this group of beloved New York performers and incredible actors who could debut this work on Broadway,” stated director Whitney White. “They connect to the play and each other in such an unforgettable way. Their chemistry is electric and you may not know them yet, but they are the stars of tomorrow. Come see them. This is a cast and generational story not to be missed.”
Liberation is a funny, time-bending, and deeply moving new play that brings to life a group of women in 1970s Ohio who gather in the basement of the local Y for a weekly consciousness-raising group—as they find their place in a new wave of feminism taking hold around them. While their candid conversations unfold with humor, heart, and vulnerability, the play explores how everyday moments spark lasting change. Interwoven with a present-day narrator discovering her mother’s radical past before marriage and motherhood, Liberation becomes a heartfelt exploration of memory, identity, and the enduring power of women speaking their truths.
Set design is by three-time Tony Award winner David Zinn (Stereophonic, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Humans), costume design is by Drama Desk Award nominee Qween Jean (Cats: The Jellicle Ball), lighting design is by Drama Desk Award nominee Cha See (Oh, Mary!, That Day in Amsterdam), sound design is by two-time Tony Award nominee Palmer Hefferan (John Proctor is the Villain, The Skin of Our Teeth), and hair and wig design is by Special Tony Award winner Nikiya Mathis (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Purpose). Intimacy Director is Kelsey Rainwater. Vocal and Dialect Coach is Gigi Buffington. Production Stage Manager is Erin Gioia Albrecht.
Liberation is produced by Daryl Roth, Eva Price, Rachel Sussman, and Jenny Gersten. General Management is by RCI Theatricals.
BIOGRAPHIES
Betsy Aidem (Margie). Broadway: Prayer for the French Republic (Tony nomination, Drama League nomination Richard Seff Award), Leopoldstadt (Tony Award, Best Play), All The Way (Tony Award, Best Play), Beautiful. Off-Broadway: The Ask (Drama Desk nomination), Prayer for the French Republic (Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Nikolai and the Others, The Metal Children, Mary Rose, Celebration, Final Follies, Crooked, etc. Film/TV: Triumph of the Will, Margaret, Irrational Man, “Savant,” “Bull,” “Inside Amy Schumer,” “Law And Order: SVU,” “The Americans,” among others. Obie Sustained Excellence of Performance.
Audrey Corsa (Dora) is an actress and writer from California. Notable TV includes “Poker Face,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Dear Edward,” “Elsbeth,” and “All Rise.” She’s very pleased to be back on the New York stage, where she has previously appeared in Mary Page Marlowe for Second Stage Theater, Appropriate, Othello, and As Five Years Pass at her alma mater, Juilliard.
Kayla Davion (Joanne). Excited to return in this amazing play! Broadway: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Tina), Elf (Jovie), Waitress, King Kong. Off-Broadway: White Girl in Danger (Florence). Regional: The Hippest Trip: Soul Train the Musical (Jody Watley), The Color Purple (Celie). TV: “The Good Fight,” “Power Book III: Raising Kanan.” Film: Better Nate Than Ever. She sends love to God, Mike, Mom, Ball State University, Nicolosi & Co, and Untitled Entertainment. “This one is for you Nana.” “Lead with Love!” @kayladavion
Susannah Flood (Lizzie) received a Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play for her performance in Liberation, along with Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Ensemble. Broadway: Birthday Candles, The Cherry Orchard. Select Off-Broadway: The Counter, The Comeuppance (Obie Award, Lortel nomination), Staff Meal, Make Believe, Plano, The Effect, Tribes, Scenes from a Marriage, Love & Information, Mr. Burns, The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise, Fulfillment, As You Like It, Baby Screams Miracle. Select Film & TV: Kristen Stewart’s forthcoming The Chronology of Water; Ann on Life and Beth (Hulu) and Kate Littlejohn on “For The People” (Shondaland/ABC). BA: UC Berkeley. MFA: Brown/Trinity.
Kristolyn Lloyd she/her (Celeste). Grammy and Emmy Award-winning actress. Broadway: 1776, Dear Evan Hansen. Off-Broadway: Blue Ridge (Atlantic), Paradise Blue, Confederates (Signature Theatre), Sally and Tom, Hamlet (The Public Theater), Invisible Thread (Second Stage Theater), Heathers The Musical (New World Stages), Cabin in the Sky (Encores! City Center), Little Women (Primary Stages). Selected Regional: Paradise Blue (Williamstown). Film: Mr. Crocket (Hulu). TV: “Random Acts of Flyness” (HBO), “Elementary,” “Madam Secretary,” “Kevin Can Wait” (CBS), “ER,” “Chicago Med” (NBC), “Lie to Me” (FOX). @kristolynlloyd
Irene Sofia Lucio (Isidora). West End and Broadway: Slave Play, Wit. Off-Broadway: Sex Variants (Skirball), Wolf Play (MCC), Romeo y Julieta (The Public Theater), Slave Play, Love & Information (NYTW), Orange Julius (Rattlestick), Undertaking (BAM), King Liz (Second Stage Theater), We Play for the Gods (WP). Regional: Yale Rep, Studio Theater of DC, California Shakespeare, Williamstown and Chautauqua. TV: “The Americans,” “Bartlett,” “Casi Casi.” Co-creator of “BUTS Webseries” (NBCU Short Film Festival winner, Imagen Award Nom.). Education: Princeton & Yale School of Drama. Native of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Charlie Thurston (Bill) is an actor and playwright. This is his Broadway debut. He and his cast-mates won the Drama Desk for Best Ensemble for Liberation’s recent Off-Broadway production. Other recent NYC theatre credits include Macbeth in Stride at BAM and Here There Are Blueberries at NYTW (2025 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play). Charlie is also a company member at Trinity Rep and has performed at theaters across the country. TV/Film: Roland in HBO Max’s “Julia” and Bill Harris in “Dexter: New Blood”. Additional selected credits include Boston Strangler, Finestkind, and Life Itself. Charlie is also an accomplished audiobook narrator—credited on more than 150 titles, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
Adina Verson they/she (Susan). TV credits include Poppy White on “Only Murders in the Building,” “New Amsterdam,” “And Just Like That,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “The Strain.” Theatre credits include the original casts of Indecent (Broadway, Ahmanson); A Transparent Musical (Mark Taper Forum); Wives (Playwrights Horizons); Collective Rage (MCC); Eddie and Dave (ATC); and The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova). Adina holds a BFA from The Boston Conservatory and a MFA from the Yale School of Drama. This one is for Zelda.
LeeAnne Hutchison (u/s Isidora, Margie). NYC: Septimus & Clarissa, A Lovely Sunday, God Shows Up, Orpheus, Our Country’s Good. Regional: Eureka Day, August: Osage County, Clybourne Park, Sex With Strangers, Frankie & Johnny, The Cake, A Streetcar Named Desire, Mary Todd Lincoln in Mrs. President. TV: “Law & Order,” “Jessica Jones,” “White House Plumbers.”
Matthew Russell (u/s Bill). Broadway: The Inheritance. Off-Broadway: Liberation (Roundabout Theatre Company); Jordans, Baldwin & Buckley at Cambridge, and Much Ado About Nothing (The Public Theater), Help (The Shed). TV/Film: “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Westworld,” Working Man and Some Freaks. Matthew has performed with Elevator Repair Service and the Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble.
Kedren Spencer (u/s Celeste, Joanne). Broadway: Ain’t No Mo’. Off-Broadway: Liberation, Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine. Select Regional: Toni Stone, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Little Shop of Horrors. Film: Pen, Again; Reopening; Half Day. Select TV: “Law & Order,” “Pretty Little Liars: SS,” “Bull,” “New Amsterdam.” MFA, FSU/Asolo Conservatory.
Bess Wohl (Playwright). Wohl’s many plays have been produced on and off Broadway, regionally, and internationally. They include Grand Horizons (Broadway, Tony Nomination for Best Play), Camp Siegfried, Make Believe, Continuity, Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero, Barcelona, Touched, In, Cats Talk Back and the musical Pretty Filthy. She recently made her feature film debut, Baby Ruby, starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harington. The film premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival and was released by Magnolia Pictures in early 2023. She also wrote for the Apple TV+ series, “Extrapolations.”
Whitney White (Director) is an Obie and Lily award-winning director, writer, and musician based in New York. Recent directing: Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Broadway), The Secret Life of Bees (The Almeida), Walden (Second Stage), Jordans (Public Theater, Obie Award for New Play), Soft (Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Direction), On Sugarland (Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nominations for Outstanding Direction), What to Send Up When it Goes Down (The Public, Playwrights Horizons, BAM, Woolly Mammoth, America Repertory Theatre), The Amen Corner (Shakespeare DC), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (Second Stage/WP Theater), For All The Women Who Thought They Were Mad (Soho Rep). Original works include Semblance (NYTW), Definition (Bushwick Starr), and Macbeth in Stride, for which she won an Eliot Norton Award for Best Musical Performance (American Repertory Theatre, Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company). Fellowships include Sundance Theatre Lab, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, Drama League Next Wave, Jerome Fellowship, Colt Coeur, Roundabout Directing Fellowship. Whitney is a Rolex Arts Initiative Protegee, an Associate Artist at the Roundabout, and an Associate Director at Shakespeare DC. Recently, she was also a writer on Boots Riley's upcoming show “I'm A Virgo” (Amazon/Media Res). MFA Brown Trinity Rep, BA Northwestern.
David Zinn (Set Design). Recent: Stereophonic, Jaja's African Hair Braiding, The Notebook, Here We Are, Kimberly Akimbo, Funny Girl, The Humans, SpongeBob SquarePants, Fun Home. Off-Broadway: Playwrights Horizons, MTC, NYTW, LCT, 2d Stage, Public. Also: A.C.T., A.R.T, Berkeley Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, Steppenwolf, Yale Rep; and The National, Young Vic (UK); Berlin Staatsoper; and Theater Basel. He’s received Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Hewes and Obie Awards for his work.
Qween Jean (Costume Design) is an NYC-based costume designer who has fully committed her voice to the advocacy of marginalized communities. She is thrilled to collaborate on Liberation. Qween founded Black Trans Liberation, which aims to provide access and housing resources for the TGNC community. Jean is the author of Revolution is Love: A Year of Black Trans Liberation (Aperture). In 2023, she joined the Board for TCG. Awards: Obie for Excellence in Costume Design; finalist for NYC David Prize. MFA from NYU Tisch.
Cha See (Lighting Design). Highlights include You Will Get Sick; Covenant (Roundabout Theatre); Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! (Broadway); Wet Brain (Obie Special Citations, Lortel Nomination for Outstanding Lighting Design); Babbitt (La Jolla Playhouse); Jordans (Public Theater); On That Day in Amsterdam (Drama Desk and Lortel Nominations for Outstanding Lighting Design); What to Send Up When It Goes Down (A.R.T. and National Tour); soft (MCC). @seethruuu
Palmer Hefferan (Sound Design) is a Tony-nominated sound designer for live performance. She has designed over 85 productions across the US. In 2024, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and a Lucille Lortel Award for her sound design of The Comeuppance. Recent productions include Grounded at the Metropolitan Opera, the musical Teeth at New World Stages, Shit. Meet. Fan. at MCC Theater, and John Proctor is the Villain on Broadway.
Erin Gioia Albrecht she/her (Production Stage Manager). Broadway: Stereophonic, A Strange Loop, Bullets Over Broadway, Matilda, Bronx Bombers, Hands on a Hardbody. Off-Broadway: The Antiquities, Stereophonic, A Strange Loop, Wives, Dance Nation, Mankind, Bella, A Life, Men on Boats, Marjorie Prime, The Christians (Playwrights Horizons); Trophy Boys, The Connector, The Light, Charm, Punk Rock, The Village Bike (MCC); India Pale Ale (MTC); Red Speedo (NYTW). Regional: The Alley, Woolly Mammoth, The 5th Avenue, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse. MFA: UC San Diego.
Daryl Roth (Producer) is a 13-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer and leading innovator in the American theatre, with a career spanning over three decades. Credited with some of the most thought-provoking productions in New York City and throughout the world, Ms. Roth has brought to the stage the works of many of our greatest dramatists, including Edward Albee, Paula Vogel, and Nilo Cruz; has helped shepherd the careers of new playwrights; and is the force behind the Tony and Olivier Award winning Best Musical Kinky Boots (Broadway, U.S. Tour, London, Toronto, Australia, Korea, Japan) and most recently produced The Picture of Dorian Gray in London and on Broadway. Ms. Roth is honored to hold the singular distinction of producing 7 Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Anna in the Tropics; August: Osage County (2008 Tony Award); Clybourne Park (2012 Tony Award); How I Learned to Drive; Proof (2001 Tony Award); Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women; and Wit. She champions stories that connect to the wider world through the stories they tell and is particularly drawn to themes that include issues of gender and identity, family dynamics, stories with strong women at the core, and those that reflect her Jewish heritage. Among the more than 130 shows she has produced both on and Off Broadway include Larry Kramer’s seminal play about the AIDS crisis, The Normal Heart (2011 Tony Award); Paula Vogel’s award-winning play Indecent; Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron’s international hit play Love, Loss, and What I Wore; and Gloria: A Life, a play about the iconic Gloria Steinem. Other prominent productions include Absolute Brightness; Angels in America; Between the Lines; Buyer & Cellar; Company; Curtains; Funny Girl; Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia; Into the Woods; It Shoulda Been You; The Kite Runner; Left on Tenth; Life of Pi; Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; War Horse; and The Year of Magical Thinking. Dedicated to supporting a number of non-profit organizations, Ms. Roth is a Trustee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Lincoln Center Theatre. Honors include The New Dramatists Outstanding Career Achievement Award; New York Living Landmarks Award; and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. She is proud to have been inducted into the 2017 Theatre Hall of Fame and be named to Crain’s 2019 “50 Most Powerful Women in New York.”
Eva Price (Producer) is an NYCLU/ACLU honoree and a three-time Tony Award-winning, and three-time Olivier Award-winning producer. Her productions have garnered 6 Olivier Awards, 2 Grammy Awards, 2 Emmy Awards, and 19 Tony Awards. Current: & Juliet (Broadway and National Tour), Titanique (West End, 2 Olivier Awards). Recent NY and Tour: Redwood, Take the Lead (Paper Mill Playhouse), Mindplay (Off-Broadway, LA, DC, Boston), Jagged Little Pill (Broadway and Tour), Titanique (Off-Broadway, Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Musical; International Companies), The Hip Hop Nutcracker (Touring Live Show, Emmy-winning PBS Special, Disney +). Selected credits: A Transparent Musical (Center Theatre Group); Oklahoma! (2 Tony Awards, 2 Olivier Awards) Tina - The Tina Turner Musical; What the Constitution Means to Me; Angels in America (Tony-winning Broadway revival starring Nathan Lane and Andrew Garfield); Dear Evan Hansen (6 Tony Awards, 3 Olivier Awards); On Your Feet!; Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons on Broadway!; Peter and the Starcatcher (5 Tony Awards); Colin Quinn Long Story Short (directed by Jerry Seinfeld); Annie; The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino; Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking; The Addams Family (starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth); as well as several solo shows and critically acclaimed concerts starring The Temptations & The Four Tops; Kathy Griffin; Lewis Black; and Hershey Felder. Off-Broadway: Sanctuary City (NYTW); Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical (le Poisson Rouge; National Tour); Drama Desk-nominated Found; The Lion (Drama Desk winner); and Bess Wohl’s critically acclaimed Small Mouth Sounds.
Rachel Sussman (Producer) is a Tony Award-winning creative producer, educator, and entrepreneur. She is a partner at Soto Productions, overseeing all theatrical development and a co-founder of The Business of Broadway, an educational venture with the aim of democratizing commercial producing knowledge. Broadway credits include: Parade (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Award); Suffs (Tony nom and Outer Critics Circle Award); Special Tony and Emmy Award winner Alex Edelman's Just for Us (on HBO Max); What the Constitution Means to Me (Tony nom and Pulitzer Prize finalist); Romeo & Juliet (Tony nom); Gypsy (Tony nom); Prima Facie. Select Off-Broadway credits: The Woodsman (Obie Award), All Nighter, and Lightning Rod Special's The Appointment. A former WP Theater Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel received A former WP Theater Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel received the 2018 Prince Fellowship in Creative Producing and was named one of Variety’s “10 to Watch on Broadway.” She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts and NYU Tisch. www.rachel-sussman.com
Jenny Gersten (Producer). An award-winning producer, Jenny Gersten’s work spans non-profit institutions and commercial theater. She is the VP and Artistic Director of Musical Theater at New York City Center. Previously she served as artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival (where she met Bess 25 years ago), associate producer at The Public Theater, and executive director of Friends of the High Line. Recent credits include Just for Us (Broadway), Beetlejuice (Broadway), Sweeney Todd (Off-Broadway), Gavin Creel’s Walk On Through (with MCC), and the Broadway transfers of City Center productions of Parade and Once Upon a Mattress.