STONY POINT, NY – April 24, 2026 – Penguin Rep Theatre, under the leadership of Joe Brancato, founding Artistic Director, and Andrew M. Horn, Executive Director, announced that casting is complete for the New York premiere of Deborah Brevoort’s My Lord, What a Night, which officially kicks off the company’s 49th season in Stony Point, New York on Friday, May 15 and runs through Sunday, June 7.
My Lord, What a Night is set in Princeton in 1937 when world-famous singer Marian Anderson is turned away from a hotel because of her race. But Anderson finds an unexpected host in Albert Einstein and what begins as a simple act of hospitality grows into a friendship based on their mutual love of music and commitment to human rights. Featuring a cast of four playing real-life historical figures — each with a unique perspective on how to effect change — this moving play is about courage, justice and our shared humanity.
Heading the cast under Brancato’s direction is Shirine Babb (as Anderson) whose Broadway credits include The Piano Lesson, A Beautiful Noise, Harry Potter: The Cursed Child and Lincoln Center’s production of Macbeth with Ethan Hawke. A winner of the Helen Hayes Award, she has worked opposite such revered classical actors as Sir Derek Jacobi, Patrick Page, and John Douglas Thompson.
Nora Cole (starring as Mary Church Terrell) has appeared on Broadway in On the Town and Jelly’s Last Jam (opposite Gregory Hines), in George C. Wolfe’s Caroline or Change at London’s Royal National Theatre, and regionally in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Fences, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Doubt. She was nominated for an Audelco Award for her performance in Rinde Eckert’s chamber opera, And God Created Great Whales.
Sam Guncler (starring as Abraham Flexner) performed on Broadway with Hal Linden in The Gathering and Off-Broadway in My Name is Asher Lev, Bug, and The Goldman Project. He returns to the Penguin stage where he starred in The Steel Man, Talley’s Folly, The Goldman Project, A Strange and Separate People, Half and Half, and Around the World in 80 Days.
Portraying Albert Einstein, John Leonard Pielmeier has worked at such theatres as Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, The Guthrie Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, and the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference. He is also an award-winning writer whose work includes four plays on Broadway, including Agnes of God, over 25 movies and miniseries, and most recently a stage adaptation of The Exorcist and a novel, Hook’s Tale.
Director Brancato’s credits include Cary Gitter’s Gene & Gilda and the Neil Berg- Gitter musical The Sabbath Girl (Penguin/59E59); Michael McKeever’s Daniel’s Husband, which transferred from Penguin to Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre and then onto its commercial production at the Westside Theatre/Upstairs; Erasmus Fenn’s Drop Dead Perfect at Theatre at St. Clements (NY Times Critic’s Pick); Angelo Parra’s The Devil’s Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Off B’way Alliance, and Audelco Award nominee); Charles Smith’s Freed (Audelco Award nominee); Karoline Leach’s Tryst (Outer Critics nomination for Best Play) at the Promenade and at Irish Rep; and Lee Blessing’s Cobb (Drama Desk winner).
Deborah Brevoort (Playwright) is best known for The Women of Lockerbie, produced internationally, and Blue Moon Over Memphis, her Noh Drama about Elvis Presley, which toured Japan in 2024 and 2025 and will open the Tokyo Autumn Arts Festival in the fall. She has written numerous dramas and comedies produced at leading theatres in the U.S. as well as twelve operas commissioned and produced at Glimmerglass, Cincinnati Opera and Chicago Opera Theatre.
The production is designed by Christian Fleming (set), Jason A. Goodwin (costumes), Cameron Filepas (lighting), Max Silverman (original music and sound), and Dana R. Weintraub (props). Alexandrea Hess is the production stage manager.
Performances of My Lord, What a Night are scheduled at Penguin Rep Theatre, a repurposed hay barn, located at 7 Crickettown Road. “The converted barn, circa 1880, has never been more inviting” (The New York Times). Says Mr. Horn, “It’s theatre so close you can feel it, with comfortable upholstered seats and no seat more than 30 feet from the stage.” The theatre is air conditioned, handicapped accessible, and has plenty of free parking.
Shows will take place: Thursday evenings at 7:00 p.m., Friday matinees at 2:00 p.m. (May 15 only), Friday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets are priced at $56 ($49 if ordered by May 8). Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more and young people (30 and under).
There will be cake and coffee with the cast following the official opening on Sunday, May 17. Following the show on Friday, May 29 will be a discussion among the artists and audience.
Cheap Thrills Night is Saturday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. when tickets are $28, half the regular price.
New this season is the introduction of Sweet Treats Friday – May 22 – when audience members are invited to arrive early and enjoy desserts before the show.
Season tickets are also on sale. Prices for the four-play season start as low as $175, a savings of more than 25% off the cost of individual tickets.
To order tickets or for further information, visit Penguin Rep’s website at WWW.PENGUINREP.ORG or call 845-786-2873.
ABOUT PENGUIN REP THEATRE
Penguin Rep Theatre (Penguin Players, Ltd.), based in historic Stony Point (Rockland County), New York, is an award-winning nonprofit professional theatre company now in its 49th year of operation.
Producing new plays in an intimate 108-seat venue, Penguin offers the excitement and thrill of experiencing original dramatic works to residents of, and visitors to, the scenic lower Hudson Valley.
Emmy Award winning actress Edie Falco says that “a visit to Penguin Rep is a perfect trip out of the city – a beautiful setting and the theatre rivals what you can see in New York.”
Sarah Jessica Parker invites audiences to experience “incomparable productions of new works” and to “visit fine theatre in a gorgeous pastoral setting only 50 minutes from Manhattan.”
Joe Brancato was a high school English and drama teacher in 1977 when he peered into an abandoned 1880s hay barn and envisioned the space repurposed into a theatre.
49 years later, Penguin Rep – the theatre Brancato started with Francine Newman-McCarthy, president of the board of trustees, and runs with executive director Andrew M. Horn – has grown from a summer theatre to become one of the lower Hudson Valley’s most enduring cultural institutions, reaching tens of thousands of theatergoers each year at its home, in New York City and beyond – with its work moving to Off Broadway and to stages across the country and around the world.
Since its founding in 1977, Penguin has presented more than 200 productions – 150 directed by Brancato himself – for more than 400,000 people from the lower Hudson Valley and beyond. And Mr. Brancato has brought together award-winning professional actors – David Canary, Michael Cullen, Tim De Kay, Gregg Edelman, Michael Esper, Barbara Feldon, Tovah Feldshuh, Beth Fowler, Deborah Hedwall, Celeste Holm, Richard Kline, Andrew McCarthy, Lizbeth Mackay, Michele Pawk, and Karen Ziemba, among others – to star in new and noteworthy plays by such writers as Lee Blessing, Ronald Harwood, Allan Knee, Arthur Laurents, Warren Leight, Ken Ludwig, Jon Marans, William Mastrosimone, Michael McKeever, Angelo Parra, Lainie Robertson, James Sherman, Elizabeth Swados, and Staci Swedeen.
As it launches its 49th season, Penguin Rep Theatre, dubbed “the gutsiest little theatre” by The New York Times, continues to present a cultural experience that is unique in the region: professional productions of new plays at affordable prices.
As The Journal News wrote: “Somebody forgot to tell artistic director Joe Brancato that he’s crazy to use a little barn plunked down in the Rockland County suburbs to experiment with unusual and challenging plays … I hope everybody keeps forgetting to tell him. The region is more the richer for it.”
“Guided by the skilled hand of Penguin’s artistic director, Joe Brancato, the splendid performers get first-rate support, as always at Penguin, by an excellent design team” (The New York Times).
“Penguin Rep is a place where theatergoers can experience magic time after time” (Lohud.com).
In 2024, Penguin was invited to become a resident co-op company at 59E59 Theatres in New York City, where it has presented eight productions, including Gene & Gilda, The Sabbath Girl (play and musical), Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Award-nominee Small, and Audelco Award-nominee Freed.
Penguin Rep Theatre’s 2026 season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Penguin Rep also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Rockland County Legislature, Town of Stony Point, The Barbara & Buddy Freitag Family Fund, Bernard & Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, The Chazen Foundation, Hydro-Quebec Energy Services, The Joan Weingarten & Bob Donnalley Gift Fund, Orange & Rockland Utilities, and The Shubert Foundation.
Contact Information:
Andrew M. Horn
Executive Director
(917) 692-5440
FB: @PenguinRep
YouTube: @penguinrepertorytheater7903
