Rachel McAdams Soaks in Her Broadway Debut on Opening Night of Amy Herzog's Mary Jane

Mary Jane, the first of Tony nominee and Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Herzog's original plays to come to Broadway, opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on April 23. Directed by Anne Kauffman, the production stars Rachel McAdams in her Broadway debut as Herzog's title character—an unwaveringly optimistic single mother who cares for her sick child while being orbited by a host of wise women played by April Matthis, Susan Pourfar, Lily Santiago and Brenda Wehle.

"It has just been the kindest, warmest, most welcoming, small-world, family-oriented kind of place," McAdams told The Broadway Show on opening night. "It's really beautiful. I see why people do this for their whole lives." 

"It's an important show, and we love it," added Matthis, who plays both the emotionally supportive in-home nurse Sherry and the measured Dr. Toros. "We've been having our own hearts devastated and broken every single night by Amy Herzog and Ms. Rachel McAdams." The evening also carried special meaning for Pourfar, who, along with Wehle, has been with the play since its 2017 off-Broadway run at New York Theatre Workshop. "This has been a seven-year journey for me with this play," said Pourfar. "I am so grateful that it's getting out to a wider audience. The story itself is something I feel really needs to be told and shared." 

"It's a play that makes you really appreciate life in an unexpected way," McAdams reflected. "Things can be hard, but humans are amazing."