Kail ’99 Directs Broadway Basketball Play and Interviews Stage Directors

Thomas Kail ’99 will direct Eric Simonson’s Magic/ Bird, a Broadway play based on the relationship between basketball superstars Larry Bird and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, due to open on March 21. The work is produced by Fran Kirmser and Tony Ponturo, who also produced Lombardi, Simonson’s Broadway play about Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, which Kail directed as well.

The new production has a cast of six actors and contains 20 scenes lasting 90 minutes. The play will try to capture the energetic pace of a basketball game while covering a number of events in the lives of the two legendary players.

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal about casting Magic/Bird, Kail said “sports merely forms the framework of the play. There are some big issues being explored … such as how athletes cope with their own mortality and how ‘enemies become brothers.’

“The process of how two people can become defined by one another is fascinat- ing to me.”

Kail has also conceived a new podcast series, “In Conversation With…,” which showcases Broadway directors and choreographers and airs biweekly. The series began Nov. 17 at americantheaterwing.org. Introduced by Harold Prince, these discus- sions with Kail deal with the directors’ dis- tinct visions and their work process. In the first five podcasts, Kail speaks with Jason Moore, Joe Mantello, Alex Timbers, Susan Stroman, and Moisés Kaufman.

The conversation “Thomas Kail and Alex Timbers” is available online at: americantheatrewing.org/sdcfmasters/detail/alex_timbers/. Kail and Timbers talk about their impulse to start their own theater companies and create new work. They also discuss those who have inspired and influ- enced them as directors.—DAVID LOW CONNECT WITH WESLEYAN