Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth, Starring Michael Cera and Kieran Culkin, is Broadway Bound

Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth is Broadway bound, starring Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin and Tavi Gevinson. According to the Chicago Tribune, the show, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, will play at the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre in Chicago June 10 through June 27, with opening night set for June 18. The production will then transfer to Broadway’s Cort Theatre, with previews starting on August 18 and opening night scheduled for September 11.

This Is Our Youth chronicles 48 hours in the lives of spoiled, drugged-out, rich kids living in Manhattan in the 1980s. Cera will play Warren, a depressed 19-year-old who has stolen $15,000 from his tycoon Dad, while Culkin will play his drug-dealer friend Dennis and Gevinson will appear as Jessica, a perceptive fashion student. The production will feature original music by Grammy winner Rostam Batmanglij and be staged in-the-round in Chicago, before being restaged for a proscenium theater on Broadway.

All three castmembers will be making their Broadway debuts. Cera and Culkin appeared in a different Australian production of This Is Our Youth in 2012. Cera’s screen credits include Arrested Development and Superbad, Culkin’s credits include Igby Goes Down and Gevinson, the 17-year-old brains behind fashion website Rookie, will be making her stage debut.

Originally produced off-Broadway by The New Group, This Is Our Youth opened at the INTAR Theatre in October 1996. The play later opened at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre in November 1998, starring Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton and Missy Yager. The 2002 West End production of This Is Our Youth starred Hayden Christensen, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anna Paquin. Other actors to subsequently appear in the London version include Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Summer Phoenix and Culkin.