You don’t have to come equipped with a knowledge of super-advanced mathematics, or even know what two-plus-two equals, to grasp, from the very start of Thomas Kail’s new revival of David Auburn’s Proof, that Ayo Edebiri, so good on TV’s restaurant drama (or comedy?) The Bear, and the Oscar-winning Don Cheadle are about to make something special of their Broadway debuts.
With a rapport that conveys the deep love and prickly exasperation of the father and daughter they portray, Edebiri and Cheadle immediately stake a claim to the stage of Broadway’s Booth Theatre – where the play opens tonight – a claim they’ll share soon enough with two equally fine actors (Jin Ha and the always astonishing Kara Young), all to bring life to Auburn’s extraordinary work that originally debuted on Broadway in 2000 and went on to win both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
With two of the most arresting first-act surprises this side of Becky Shaw‘s kinda-sorta pseudo-brother-sister kiss, Proof accomplishes the improbable though clearly not impossible: It makes mathematic equations and the eccentric geniuses who dream them up seem the stuff of mystery novels and family drama. Director Kail (Hamilton) skillfully guides and paces his excellent cast through some heady stuff with big emotional stakes.
Edebiri plays Catherine, a 25-year-old college dropout who we first encounter having a late-night back-porch chat with her dad, the brilliant mathematician Robert (Cheadle). The conversation, by turns comfortable and touchy, is familiar enough. Dad wants to know why his once-promising scholar-daughter is wasting her life away at the family home, sleeping late, moping, squandering her talent and abandoning the dreams they both once dreamed.
Within minutes we understand what’s going on: Catherine, it seems, is paralyzed with the fear that she, like her celebrated and once-prolific father, will descend from genius to madness (“bughouse” is the catch-all phrase used, apparently, and not entirely convincingly, to avoid getting into technical-medical weeds). The very conversation that opens the play could be more symptom than sign: Robert, we quickly learn, has been dead for days. This chat is solely in the mind of Catherine.
Kara Young, Ayo Edebiri
Matthew Murphy
Catherine’s apparent stasis is interrupted by the arrivals – intrusions, more aptly – of two people: Her loving and worrying if controlling sister Claire (Young), visiting Chicago from New York and determined to take over not only the funeral arrangements but her younger sister’s future. Like Blanche DuBois, Catherine “stayed and struggled” (to quote Tennessee Williams) while Claire, like Stella, went off for greener pastures. Resentments return right alongside Claire.
Also new(ish) to the homestead is Hal (Ha), a favorite student of Robert’s who implores Catherine to grant him continued access to the master’s papers for the sake of posterity and in the name of discovery. What if Robert had, despite all outward appearances, been mentally and mathematically active these last years, developing the intricate and groundbreaking “proofs” that were the basis of his early career?
After a boisterous funeral wake, Catherine and Hal give in to their mutual attraction and, convinced of his good intentions, Catherine agrees to grant Hal full access to dad’s stashed-away work.
Proof does not follow the dramaturgical equation you might have worked out for yourself. We can’t be sure of the young man’s motives, at least initially, and we don’t have much reason to expect a needle of genius in the haystack of Robert’s “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” gibberish.
But we’d be wrong. Hal does indeed locate what just might be an historic and revelatory work of brilliance, stunning both himself and Claire. Catherine? Not so much. She knew it was there all along, even provided Hal with the key to its locked-away place.
To explain Catherine’s initial reluctance to share her dad’s mathematical masterpiece with Hal (and the rest of academia) would be to spoil far too much of Proof‘s first-act leap and second act plot. Enough to say that the revelation, when it comes, destabilizes the carefully constructed worlds of all concerned.
The action – and these incisive conversations certainly feel active – unfolds in front of Teresa L. Williams’ lovely, simple house-frame set, lit by ever-shifting neon-style colors that suggest shifts in both time and mood (Amanda Zieve is the lighting designer). Dede Ayite’s costume design nails each character, from Catherine’s slouchy, depressing sweats-and-flannels to Claire’s chic, New York casual-glam.
The cast assembled here is easily one of the best on Broadway right now. Edebiri was, frankly, the wild card, an intriguing bit of casting that nonetheless had folks wondering whether her thoughtful, interior-facing style that is so effective on television would translate onto a Broadway stage. It does. Her Catherine is less defined by the quirky, appealing eccentricities of Mary-Louise Parker’s performance in the original 2000 Broadway staging, but is girded by a certain angry resignation, fearful of what life might have in store, furious too, yet seething with a will to defy it all.
If Edebiri is the revelation, her co-stars are with her every step of the way. Even though he, too, is making his Broadway debut, Cheadle arrives with the expectations that accompany a long, stellar film career, and he does not disappoint. Whether appearing in his daughter’s unreliable imagination or in what we assume are reality-accurate flashbacks, Cheadle’s Robert encompasses both the play’s grounding force and its suggestions of instability. He is the story’s reliable center of gravity, except when he isn’t.
Ha, impressive in a small role in Lincoln Center’s 2024 staging of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, is even more so here. His Hal is equal parts romantic, pragmatist and savior (though who, exactly, he’s trying to save – Robert, Catherine or himself – isn’t clear until the moment it should be).
And once again, Young, as the helicopter sister, proves her inestimable value to the Broadway stage. Her fierce commitment to every role she takes – comic, dramatic, both at once – is thrilling to watch. Stepping into the role as a last-minute replacement for an ailing Samira Wiley last month, Young already holds a Tony Award record with four consecutive nominations for her first four Broadway performances from 2022 through 2025 (she won in 2024 for Purlie Victorious and 2025 for Purpose, the first Black actor to take the trophy two years in a row.) The Broadway season still has much to unfold, but no one should be surprised if Young adds to her track record come nomination time.
Title: Proof
Venue: Broadway’s Booth Theatre
Written By: David Auburn
Directed By: Thomas Kail
Cast: Ayo Edebiri, Don Cheadle, Jin Ha, Kara Young
Running Time: 2 hrs 15 min (including intermission)
