Jonathan Groff is set to return to Broadway in a dramatically different format: alone onstage in The Amish Project. The Tony Award winner will begin performances in Jessica Dickey’s solo play on Wednesday, February 10, 2027, at the Broadhurst Theatre.
Sarna Lapine will direct the production, which was announced by producers Robert Ahrens and Tom Kirdahy. An official opening date has not yet been set, while the show’s design team is expected to be revealed shortly.
The engagement follows Groff’s appearances in the large-cast Broadway productions Merrily We Roll Along and Just In Time. With The Amish Project, the performer will take sole responsibility for channeling an intimate story centered on tragedy, compassion and forgiveness.
A Story of Loss and Grace
Inspired by true events, the play follows the aftermath of a tragedy that devastates a close-knit Amish community. According to the production’s synopsis, the community responds with an act of grace that challenges conventional ideas about forgiveness.
The events unfolded only minutes from where Groff grew up, giving the Broadway staging a personal dimension for its star. Groff said the tragedy occurred in a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 20 years before the production’s announcement.
“Sarna Lapine sent me The Amish Project last year and I was floored by the urgency and potent poetry of Jessica’s writing as she dives headfirst into the many aftershocks of this horrific event and explores the idea that sometimes the most radical human act is forgiveness,” Groff said.
He added that he was “profoundly grateful” to bring Dickey’s work to Broadway with Lapine and the production team.
Lapine described the play as a portrait of “a community in mourning” and “a community in conversation.” She praised Dickey’s writing as precise, lean and strong, while identifying the central question at the heart of the work: “How does one forgive the unforgivable?”
The Play’s Journey to Broadway
The Amish Project arrives on Broadway after an extensive theatrical life. It debuted to critical acclaim at the New York International Fringe Festival and was subsequently developed at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Its Off Broadway premiere followed at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in 2009.
The work has since become Dickey’s most-produced play. Among its subsequent stagings were productions at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Milwaukee Rep, American Theater Company in Chicago and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, as well as other theaters around the world.
Dickey, whose other plays include The Rembrandt and The Convent, said she wrote The Amish Project while grappling with how to create a meaningful life as an artist in a world capable of violence. She credited the play with launching her writing career and changing her life.
“To return to it now, all these years later, when its questions feel as urgent as ever, is profoundly moving,” Dickey said. She also pointed to Groff’s personal connection to the story and his collaboration with Lapine, Ahrens and Kirdahy.
The producers said Groff’s “humanity, generosity and gift for storytelling” would help create what they expect to be a transporting night of theater. They also praised Dickey’s play and Lapine’s direction while expressing pride in bringing the work to Broadway audiences.
ShowBiz Take
The Amish Project represents both a major performance challenge for Groff and a significant new chapter for a play first seen more than a decade ago. After working in the ensemble environments of Merrily We Roll Along and Just In Time, Groff will now carry the entire production as its single performer.
The Broadway staging also reunites the work’s long production history with the deeply personal connection described by its star. That combination—an established solo play, a performer tied geographically to the events that inspired it and a creative team focused on the subject of forgiveness—makes this more than a routine Broadway return.
What Happens Next?
Audiences will get their first look when performances begin at the Broadhurst Theatre on February 10, 2027. The production’s official opening night remains to be announced, and further details will follow when the design team is unveiled.