Six brand-new plays will hit the stage tonight at the Todd Haimes Theatre on Broadway, each one dreamed up, written, rehearsed and memorized in less time than it takes most people to finish a Netflix season. The cast and creative team only met up Sunday to kick off the frantic process, and by 7 p.m. tonight, audiences will see the results of a single sleepless day of theatre-making.
A Marathon Built Into One Night
The production is The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, a one-night-only charity benefit in which actors, writers and directors from Broadway, film and television gather to write, rehearse and perform new plays within a single 24-hour window, according to the organization. As Playbill reports, the event marks its return to the Todd Haimes Theatre on Broadway for its 2026 edition.
Per BroadwayWorld, the cast and creative team met up Sunday to start preparations, after which writers worked through the night to produce new 10-minute scripts. Six of those plays are now scheduled for a one-night-only performance before a live audience, the outlet notes.
Honoring a Hamilton Director
This year's presentation is being staged in honor of Tony-winning Hamilton director and longtime 24 Hour Plays supporter Thomas Kail, the same Playbill report states. Kail said he was delighted that many of the former assistants and associates he met through the organization over the years would be taking part in this year's production, and added that he was looking forward to seeing what the theater-makers created, according to the seed reporting from Time Out New York.
The announced cast draws heavily from film and television as well as the stage. Busy Philipps, Hugh Dancy, Amber Tamblyn, David Cross, Constance Zimmer, Justin Bartha, David Burtka, Chris Chalk, Josh Hamilton, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jin Ha and Shannon Purser are among the performers listed by the same Playbill report. Additional names newly joining this year's performance include Ruby Cruz, Patrick Heusinger, James Lance and Mickey Sumner, the outlet adds.
Writers and Directors Racing the Clock
Behind the scenes, the overnight scripts are coming from playwrights Eboni Booth, Sarah Burgess, Julia Jordan, Warren Leight, Steven Levenson and Jonathan Marc Sherman, per the Playbill account. Turning those pages into staged scenes in a matter of hours falls to a directing team that includes Sherri Eden Barber, Tiffany Nichole Greene, David Ruttura, Kate Sullivan, Patrick Vassel and Deanna Weiner, the report notes.
A Tradition Rooted on the Lower East Side
The format itself has deep roots in New York theatre. The organization's annual celebrity gala debuted on September 24, 2001, according to 24hourplays.org, building on a concept with a much longer history. The Library of Congress describes The 24 Hour Plays as founded in New York City by Tina Fallon in 1995, while the seed reporting from Time Out New York places that founding more specifically in October 1995 on the Lower East Side.
The format has since traveled beyond New York. A Los Angeles edition of The 24 Hour Plays was documented in September 2024, featuring Constance Zimmer alongside Rich Sommer, Ryan Foust and Samantha Ressler, per 24hourplays.org — a sign of how far the sprint-theatre concept has spread since its downtown beginnings.
Tonight's performance caps a process that began with nothing but a blank page and a looming deadline. Whatever shape the six new plays take, they will have gone from idea to opening night in under 24 hours, with Kail's influence on the organization serving as the throughline for this year's gathering of Broadway, film and television talent.
