The Starry Messenger Tickets

Broadway and big-screen icon Matthew Broderick delivers his West End debut by way of a starring role in the play The Starry Messenger. He is joined by Downton Abbey star and Broadway veteran Elizabeth McGovern. Penned by Kenneth Lonergan and inspired by Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius, the play is an examination of grand narratives such as the stars, fate and the universe and also, much closer to home, of love. It is directed by Sam Yates and produced by Simon Friend, and runs at Wyndham’s Theatre from 16 May 2019.

Mark Williams is an astronomer working at the New York City Planetarium. Unfulfilled by his job and growing distant from his wife, Anne, Mark harbours a warmer affection for the cosmos than for anything closer to hand. A firm non-believer in anything related to fate or divine intervention, Mark is about to have cause to re-evaluate everything he thought he knew. A chance meeting brings single mother and trainee nurse Angela into his life, and soon afterwards a catastrophe hits them like a thunderbolt. Suddenly, Mark’s place in the universe seems in dire need of reassessment.

Matthew Broderick plays Mark, reprising the role which he first performed in the 2009 off-Broadway iteration of the play. Broderick has been a household name since his legendary turn as Ferris in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The American actor and singer has been inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well as the American Theater Hall of Fame and counts two Tony Awards to his name.

Elizabeth McGovern has starred on the television, cinema and theatre and will be best known to some for her role as Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. She has earned a swathe of prestigious award nominations in her time.

Joining them are Jim Norton, Rosalind Eleazar, Jenny Galloway, Sinead Matthews, Joplin Sibtain and Sid Sagar.

Kenneth Lonergan is the celebrated Academy Award-winning writer of the devastating 2016 film Manchester by the Sea. His impressive resume spans theatre, film and television, and also includes having co-written the 2002 Gangs of New York.

Director Sam Yates's previous credits include The Phlebotomist at Hampstead Theatre and Glengarry Glen Ross at the Playhouse Theatre.

A bittersweet comedy drama, The Starry Messenger sends out an expression of hope and love that will surely prove irresistible to its West End audience. Capture a little stardust when it arrives at Wyndham’s Theatre from 16 May to 10 August 2019.