New play 'Patriots' to open on Broadway

Written by Peter Morgan, creator of Netflix's The Crown, this award-winning show transfers to New York following two celebrated engagements in London.

Patriots, a new play by Peter Morgan, will open on Broadway this spring as part of the 2023-24 Broadway season. The limited 12-week run will begin on April 1 at the Barrymore Theatre, with opening night on April 22.

Morgan is best known as the creator of Netflix's Emmy Award-winning series The Crown, which dramatizes the lives of British royalty. In Patriots, Morgan takes on Russian politics, telling the story of how billionaire Boris Berezovsky, one of the country's once-most powerful men, recommended Vladimir Putin as the successor to President Boris Yeltsin — and soon became an enemy of the state as his presence threatened Putin's rise.

Patriots comes to New York after a critically acclaimed world premiere at London's Almeida Theatre in 2022, becoming the fastest-selling new play in the theatre's history and winning the 2023 Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play. A sold-out run at the Noël Coward Theatre in London's West End followed.

A four-star review in London Theatre called Patriots "monstrously entertaining" and an "epic biographical play... Morgan has inarguably produced a work that speaks to the moment."

The Patriots Broadway cast includes two London cast members: Will Keen, reprising his Olivier Award-winning performance as Vladimir Putin, and Luke Thallon as Roman Abramovich. Tony Award nominee Michael Stuhlbarg (The Pillowman, Call Me By Your Name, Boardwalk Empire) returns to Broadway for the first time in nearly 20 years to play Boris Berezovsky, a role originated in London by Tom Hollander.

Additional casting has yet to be announced.

Director Rupert Goold staged both London runs and returns for the New York transfer. The Patriots creative team also features set designer Miriam Buether, costume designers Deborah Andrews and Miriam Buether, lighting designer Jack Knowles, sound designer and composer Adam Cork, movement director Polly Bennett, and projection designer Ash J Woodward.

Photo credit: Will Keen, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Luke Thallon. (Photos courtesy of production; Keen photo by Enrique Cidoncha)