Jonathan Groff is returning to Broadway with a story connected to the place where he grew up.
The Tony-winning actor will star in The Amish Project, a solo play by Jessica Dickey, directed by Sarna Lapine.
Performances begin February 10, 2027, at the Broadhurst Theatre, according to the production announcement published by The Shubert Organization.
The play draws on the 2006 Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, an event that occurred just minutes from Groff’s childhood home.
A Story Close to Home
Groff said Lapine sent him the play last year and that its writing made a profound impression on him.
He was particularly drawn to its exploration of forgiveness as a radical human response to devastating violence.
The production places a community’s different perspectives in the hands of one performer.
It is an intimate challenge for an actor audiences have watched across musical theater, television and film, including Looking and Glee.
Fiction Inspired by Real Tragedy
The distinction between inspiration and documentary is important here.
Publisher Concord Theatricals describes the play as a fictional exploration of the shooting and the compassion that followed it.
In a 2019 interview about the work, Dickey explained that she created fictional people rather than asking survivors and families to recount their experiences for her script.
She wanted to respect the privacy of people already carrying an immense loss.
The Amish community’s response, including embracing the gunman’s family as fellow victims, became central to her exploration.
Dickey also emphasized that the play offers audiences an opportunity to consider forgiveness, rather than prescribing it as the response everyone must choose.
Her account makes room for another element that might surprise audiences: humor arising from the characters’ personalities, alongside the work’s difficult subject matter.
The Place His Dreams Began
For gay audiences who have followed Groff’s career, the connection to his childhood adds another layer.
Accepting his 2024 Tony for Merrily We Roll Along, he thanked the family who encouraged his creativity and the Spring Awakening company who helped inspire him to come out at 23.
As the transcript of that speech records, his journey from Pennsylvania to the theater community in New York remains deeply meaningful to him.
This new production brings those two parts of his life into proximity again: a Broadway stage and a story rooted near home.
General ticket sales begin November 10, with early-access sales starting November 9.
📷 The Tony Awards / @grofffsauce
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