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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window

Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.

Apr 25 – July 2, 2023
138 W 48th St, New York, NY 10036

Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright best known for A Raisin In the Sun, was only 34 when pancreatic cancer took her life. Indeed, her last play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, which premiered on Broadway in October of 1964, ended its run three months later on the day she died. Set in the early 60s, it’s about an unhappily married couple struggling to find meaning in the Bohemian culture of Greenwich Village. Sidney, a disillusioned white intellectual, gets increasingly invested in local politics, while his wife, Iris, an aspiring actress, grows increasingly discontented with him. During a fight, Iris laments, “I’m 29, and I want to know that when I die more than 10 or a hundred people will know the difference.” The first major New York revival of the play was sold old at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last winter. Now the production comes to Broadway. Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan, who starred as Sidney and Iris at BAM, continue in the roles on Broadway. —Jensen Davis

Photo: Catalina Kulczar