John Proctor is the Villain on Broadway Tickets

A+! Get tickets for John Proctor is the Villian on Broadway

Stranger Things star Sadie Sink makes her return to Broadway to star in this moving, bitingly funny coming of age comedy-drama by Kimberly Belflower.

John Proctor is the Villain is a brand new play about friendship, what it means to be a teenage girl in a post #MeToo world and who really gets to be the hero in the stories we tell, and comes to Broadway’s Booth Theatre following critically acclaimed runs in Washington and Boston.

What is the play John Proctor is the Villain about?

It’s 2018 and The Crucible is on the curriculum for a high-school honors English class in a rural Georgia town. The students, however, are more preoccupied with gossip, sex and who’s kissing who than with reading about the Salem witch trials. Trying to figure out their place in a post #MeToo world, some of the girls try to start a feminism club, but receive pushback from their conservative school administrators. As the students delve further into The Crucible, the girls begin to question their perspective on the play, and whether its flawed but lauded protagonist John Proctor is really the hero their teacher purports him to be.

John Proctor is the Villain is a re-examination and response to The Crucible, and looks at Arthur Miller’s American classic through a 21st century perspective - positioning the play’s protagonist John Proctor in relation to toxic masculinity, abuse and sexual inequity. The Washington Post said of John Proctor is the Villain “It is no minimization of this play’s many other achievements to say that, after watching it, you will never view ‘The Crucible’ in the same way again.”

John Proctor is the Villain has taken an unusual path to Broadway, having been previously licensed for nearly 100 nonprofessional productions, mainly at high schools and colleges. “A touching, and sometimes hilarious, portrait of bracingly specific 21st-century young people.” (Washington Post), the play has also had two previous iterations, at Studio Theatre in Washington in 2022 and at Huntington Theatre Company in Boston in early 2024, both of which received glowing reviews.

Who is John Proctor?

So who is the villainous figure of the play’s title anyway? John Proctor is the lead character in Arthur Miller’s 1953 tragic play The Crucible. Often considered to be an American Classic, and a key part of the literary canon of American drama, The Crucible won the 1953 Tony Award for best play and has had many iterations on both stage and screen.

The Crucible tells the partially-fictionalized story of the Salem Witch Trials held in the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1692 to 1693. Miller’s script was an allegory for the rise of McCarthyism and the anti-communist paranoia sweeping the nation at the time. John Proctor is the central character of Miller’s play, a tragic hero who is depicted as an upstanding figure in society - but he has a dark secret. As the play goes on Proctor has to decide whether telling the truth is worth ruining his reputation.

John Proctor is the Villain, is both a response to and re-examination of this foundational piece of American theater, flipping the script on a classic with a fresh new perspective that asks who the hero really is.

Sadie Sink returns to Broadway in John Proctor is the Villain

Sadie Sink is top of the class in this cast, with further casting yet to be announced. Best known for her role as Max on Stranger Things, Sink is no stranger to Broadway, having cut her teeth on stage in roles in Annie and The Audience before sky-rocketing to international fame in the Duffer Brothers Netflix smash-hit. In an interview with Deadline she said “I’m very lucky to be surrounded by a team of such strong artists as I return to Broadway, bringing to life an original play we all care so deeply about.”

Kimberley Belflower is a playwright and educator from rural Georgia. In 2018 her play Lost Girl won the Kennedy Center Darrell Ayers National Playwriting Award, and her other works include Teen Girl FANtasies, Gondal, and The Sky Game. John Proctor is the Villain marks her Broadway debut.

Obie winner Danya Taymor directs. Taymor was nominated for a 2024 Tony for her direction on musical The Outsiders, and her previous directing work includes Jeremy O Harris’ Daddy, Danai Gurrira’s Familiar and Antoinette Nwandu's Passover.

Book now for John Proctor is the Villain at the Booth Theatre

Sadie Sink is set to be the most popular girl in class as she makes her return to Broadway in John Proctor is the Villain. So stay in everyone’s good books and get tickets today for this heartfelt and hilarious comedy drama by a powerful new voice in American Theater.