Schitt’s Creek actor Noah Reid will make his Broadway debut next spring in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s The Minutes, the Tracy Letts play that was in previews when the Covid pandemic shutdown was announced in March 2020.
Reid will take the role of Mr. Peel, previously played by Armie Hammer, who withdrew from the production amidst sexual misconduct allegations.
The Minutes will resume performances at Studio 54 on March 19, 2022, with an official opening set for Thursday, April 7. Tickets are on sale today.
Reid will join the rest of the cast that was in place at the time of the shutdown: Letts, Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton and Jeff Still.
Best known for playing Patrick Brewer in TV’s Schitt’s Creek, Reid most recently starred in the independent feature film Buffaloed opposite Zoey Deutch and Judy Greer. He will next star opposite Josh Brolin and Imogen Poots in Brian Watkins’ new Amazon series Outer Range.
Though The Minutes will mark Reid’s Broadway debut, his Toronto stage credits include Hamlet at the Tarragon Theatre, and Annie Baker’s The Aliens and Strindberg’s Creditors at the Coal Mine Theatre.
The Minutes premiered at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago in 2017 and began previews at Broadway’s Cort Theatre on February 25, 2020, with a planned opening of March 15 of that year, three days after the shutdown commenced. (Earlier this year the Shubert Organization announced a major renovation project for The Cort; though The Minutes is moving to the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54 venue, the play is not a Roundabout production.)
The synopsis: The comedy takes a hard look at the inner workings of a city council meeting and the hypocrisy, greed and ambition that bubble to the surface when a newcomer to the small town of Big Cherry starts to ask the wrong questions. Why is someone on the council mysteriously missing? What happened to all those bicycles? Is there skullduggery afoot with the city’s finances? What’s the deal with the available parking space? What the F is going on with the Lincoln Smackdown? And why are the minutes from the last meeting being kept secret?
Directed by Steppenwolf’s Anna D. Shapiro, The Minutes will feature scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Ana Kuzmanic, lighting design by Brian MacDevitt, and sound design and original music by André Pluess. The producing team is led by Jeffrey Richards, Rebecca Gold, Carl Moellenberg, Spencer Ross, Louise Gund, with Jayne Baron Sherman, Elizabeth Armstrong, Blakeman Entertainment, HornosBerger, Across the River Productions, Stewart F. Lane/Bonnie Comley/Leah Lane, Kathleen K. Johnson, Emily Dobbs, Robert Flicker, Jacob Soroken Porter, and The Shubert Organization.
Hammer announced last April that he had withdrawn from the planned return of The Minutes after allegations of previous sexual misconduct were levied against, and denied by, the actor. At the time, Hammer said, “I have loved every single second of working on The Minutes with the family I made from Steppenwolf. But right now I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family. Consequently, I will not be returning to Broadway with the production.”
