Life of Pi is Coming to Broadway

Broadway will be bringing the play Life of Pi to New York City in March 2023 following the production’s huge success in West End theatre in London. The play, directed by Max Webster and scripted by Lolita Chakrabarti, is an adaptation of Yann Martel’s best-selling 2001 novel by the same name. The 2012 film Life of Pi, also based on the novel, obtained widespread global recognition by winning multiple awards including the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Awards.

Life of Pi is the fictional story of a teenage Indian boy by the name of Pi Patel. During his family’s move from India to Canada on a cargo ship, a brutal shipwreck occurs that takes his family away and leaves him with a lifeboat and some animals, which are a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Eventually, only Richard Parker and Pi survive on the lifeboat after the other animals frantically slaughter each other due to hunger. Richard Parker becomes Pi’s companion in the lonely sea as Pi progressively learns to control and train it. In the end, they finally land at a safe place; however, Richard Parker walks into the woods by itself and is never seen again.

The play had previously won five Olivier Awards, the equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards in England. The awards include Best New Play, Best Scenic Design, and Best Lighting Design. Breaking the historical trend, the award Best Actor in a Supporting Role was given to a total of seven actors who collectively performed as the tiger.

Before arriving on Broadway in the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 30, the play will be performed for the first time in North America at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University between December 4, 2022, and January 29, 2023. The casting will be later announced by Broadway.