Tony Nominee Mark Strong on the Creative Alchemy of Oedipus on Broadway

Mark Strong made a bold return to Broadway in Robert Icke’s contemporary reimagining of Oedipus after an acclaimed run in the West End. Strong starred alongside Lesley Manville, who is a 2026 Tony nominee for her performance as Jocasta. The British stage and screen star was last seen on Broadway in a 2015 production of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge.

Both performances earned the actor Tony Award nominations, proving that an 11-year absence has done little to diminish his power over New York audiences. “All creative undertaking is alchemy and it doesn't always work,” Strong told Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek. “But when it does, it's very exciting.”

Creative alchemy is central to this interpretation of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, which reframed the titular character as a politician reckoning with unsavory revelations on election night. “What I loved was how many young people came to the show. Every night I'd come out and I'd sign programs and do selfies with young people,” says Strong. “I think being able to take a two-and-a-half- thousand-year-old play that people probably think of as quite dull and a bit consigned to history and make it modern and make it interesting and make it dynamic is a wonderful thing.”

Another feature of this production was a conspicuous countdown clock, signaling the moment when plot-hinging election results are finalized. “We're very lucky with the clock," Strong says, "because there was a bit of me that when I saw that in the script, I thought, we better be good because otherwise people will literally be looking at the clock going, oh my God, there's still an hour to go. It could have gone both ways.”

For Strong, bringing Oedipus from the West End to Broadway carries its own charge. “It's like a stamp of authenticity," he says. "It's exotic. I've never started a play on Broadway and to come here is genuinely a privilege. It usually means that whatever it is you're doing is good enough that people want to bring it over. I think Broadway audiences are really discerning as well. The fact that we can take a Greek tragedy and put it on Broadway and break box office records and get young people coming, it means an awful lot. It's a great community here.”

Watch the full interview below!