Executive Overview
The Broadway theatrical landscape is preparing to welcome one of the most intellectually rigorous, deeply unsettling, and critically lauded documentary plays of the 21st century. Tectonic Theater Project’s Here There Are Blueberries, co-created by master theatrical innovator Moisés Kaufman and writer Amanda Gronich, is officially bound for the Great White Way. Set to begin previews on November 2 ahead of an official opening night on November 9 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, this limited engagement will run through January 10, 2027.
Presented as a high-profile co-production between Tectonic Theater Project and the La Jolla Playhouse, the production arrives on Broadway carrying substantial critical momentum. It previously captured the theatrical world’s attention as a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and subsequently clinched the 2025 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play following a celebrated Off-Broadway run at the New York Theatre Workshop.
At its core, Here There Are Blueberries is a documentary play rooted in chilling historical reality. The narrative unfolds around the real-life discovery of an unassuming photo album mailed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Inside were images depicting high-ranking Nazi officers, SS guards, and administrative personnel relaxing, laughing, and eating blueberries at a leisure resort called Solahütte—a location situated just yards away from the unspeakable horrors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
By assembling a stellar ensemble cast combining original Tectonic company members with powerhouse Broadway veterans, director Moisés Kaufman aims to hold a mirror up to contemporary humanity. The production invites—and demands—that audiences look directly at the banality of evil, not merely to dissect the perpetrators of the past, but to interrogate the moral culpability latent within human nature itself.
Detailed Chronology: From Archives to the Stage
The journey of Here There Are Blueberries from an unexpected archival find to a major Broadway event is a testament to the meticulous, investigative nature of Tectonic Theater Project’s devised methodology.
The Archival Discovery and Initial Conception
The story begins with a mysterious package delivered to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Inside was an album containing hundreds of photographs collected by Karl Höcker, an adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz. The images captured a side of the Holocaust rarely seen in historical archives: perpetrators of genocide engaging in domestic normalcy, singing around pianos, flirting, and enjoying idyllic moments just a short walk from the gas chambers.
When Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich first encountered these photographs, they recognized a profound theatrical and moral dilemma. How could human beings participate in industrial-scale mass murder by day and unwind with leisure, music, and berries by night? Utilizing the signature investigative techniques that previously yielded masterworks like The Laramie Project, Kaufman and Gronich began conducting extensive interviews with archivists, historians, descendants of perpetrators, and researchers to trace how the album surfaced, who handled it, and what psychological mechanisms allowed such stark compartmentalization to exist.
Regional Premieres and International Resonance
Following years of intensive research, writing, and workshop development, Here There Are Blueberries made its world premiere in July 2022 at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. The regional production immediately struck a nerve with audiences and critics alike, establishing the play’s distinct visual and structural vocabulary—blending verbatim interviews, historical inquiry, and the actual projection of the unsettling historical photographs.
Following its California debut, the production embarked on an international trajectory, culminating in an anticipated and fiercely debated Off-Broadway run at the New York Theatre Workshop. It was during this New York engagement that the production cemented its status as a landmark theatrical event. Critics praised its ability to turn historical detective work into a gripping psychological thriller, leading to a slew of accolades, including the 2025 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play and a coveted spot as a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The Broadway Bow
Now, the production takes its final and most prominent leap to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway staging represents the culmination of a multi-year collaborative effort to bring a rigorous, documentary-style examination of the Holocaust to the commercial mainstream. Featuring a limited engagement running through January 10, 2027, the Broadway run promises to introduce this vital historical reckoning to a broader, international audience of theatergoers.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Cast, Creative Team, and Production Scale
The Broadway transfer of Here There Are Blueberries boasts an extraordinary fusion of foundational Tectonic company members and some of the most respected talents working in American theater and television today.
The Ensemble Cast
A balance of continuity and fresh artistic energy defines the Broadway company. Returning to reprise their critically acclaimed performances from earlier stagings are foundational Tectonic Theater Project members:
- Scott Barrow
- Kathleen Chalfant (a titan of the American stage known for her commanding presence and intellectual rigor)
- Delia Cunningham
Joining these veterans for the Broadway engagement is a formidable lineup of stage and screen talent:
- Michelle Beck (A Raisin in the Sun)
- Michael Cerveris, a two-time Tony Award winner (Fun Home, Assassins)
- Brandon Flynn (13 Reasons Why)
- Montego Glover, a Tony nominee (An American Daughter, Memphis)
- Conrad Ricamora, fresh off his triumphant run in the runaway hit Oh, Mary!
Rounding out the company as understudies are a versatile group of performers: Jeanne Sakata, Anna Shafer, Marrick Smith, and Grant James Varjas.
The Creative Powerhouse
Under the visionary direction of Moisés Kaufman, the physical and aesthetic world of the production is constructed by a first-tier creative team. The Broadway mounting features:
- Scenic Design: Derek McLane, tasked with translating the clinical, archival nature of the investigation into a dynamic theatrical space.
- Costume Design: Dede Ayite, capturing the distinction between period-accurate attire and contemporary investigative framing.
- Lighting Design: David Lander, utilizing light and shadow to underscore the moral murkiness of the archival material.
- Sound Design: Bobby McElver, weaving an acoustic landscape that underscores the tension between pastoral leisure and industrial horror.
- Projection Design: David Bengali, whose work with the actual historical photographs serves as the central focal point of the narrative.
- Casting: Stephanie Yankwitt
- Dramaturgy: Amy Marie Seidel
- Production Stage Management: Erin Albrecht
Production Infrastructure and Financial Backing
The Broadway run is mounted through a robust collaborative infrastructure. Produced by Tectonic Theater Project alongside Brian & Dayna Lee, Bruce Roberts, Sue Vaccaro, and Ricky Stevens, the production benefits from veteran operational guidance. Chris Morey of 101 Productions serves as executive producer, with general management by Evan Bernardin Productions and production management by Sightline Productions. Furthermore, the Broadway bow is presented in association with Michael Hormel and Midnight Theatricals, ensuring that this demanding, non-traditional work receives the commercial and institutional backing required to thrive in a major Broadway house.
Official Statements: Articulating the Mission
The weight of Here There Are Blueberries rests heavily on its ethical imperative. Rather than offering simplistic moralizing, the creative team has consistently emphasized that the play is designed to confront the audience with uncomfortable truths about human nature.
In a joint statement reflecting on the journey of the piece, co-creator and director Moisés Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project Executive Director Matt Joslyn shared their perspective on the production’s broader significance:
"For Tectonic Theater Project, bringing Here There Are Blueberries to Broadway is the culmination of a remarkable journey. These photographs hold a mirror up to our humanity in the most intimate and unsettling way. We have to look at them—not to understand the people in the pictures, but to better understand ourselves."
This sentiment echoes the central thesis of the work: that the atrocities of the Holocaust were not committed by alien monsters, but by ordinary human beings who possessed families, listened to music, enjoyed nature, and compartmentalized their daily participation in systematic genocide. By confronting theatergoers with the physical evidence of this psychological phenomenon, Kaufman, Gronich, and the Tectonic ensemble refuse to let the past remain comfortably distant.
Future Outlook: The Cultural Legacy of Tectonic’s Latest Masterwork
As Here There Are Blueberries prepares for its inaugural Broadway performances this November, its impact on the contemporary theatrical canon is already secure. In an era where documentary theater and verbatim plays are increasingly vital tools for civic engagement and historical memory, Tectonic Theater Project has once again raised the bar for what non-fiction storytelling can achieve on a commercial stage.
The production’s trajectory—from a regional premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse, through an acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement, up to its current Broadway residency at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre—demonstrates that contemporary audiences possess a deep appetite for intellectually rigorous, morally complex drama. By tackling the Holocaust through a fresh, chillingly domestic lens, the play avoids historical cliches and forces a modern audience to re-examine their own complicity in systemic injustice, passive observation, and the ease with which human empathy can be compartmentalized.
Through January 10, 2027, the Ethel Barrymore Theatre will serve as a space not just for entertainment, but for collective reckoning. As the house lights go down and the historical photographs illuminate the stage, Here There Are Blueberries will challenge every spectator to look closely at the images projected before them—and, by extension, to look unflinchingly into the mirror of human history.
