THE FEAR OF 13 Starring Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson Opens On Broadway

Reviews are in for The Fear of 13, Lindsey Ferrentino’s new play now open on Broadway at the James Earl Jones Theatre.

The production marks the Broadway debuts of Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson, who lead a cast that also includes Ephraim Sykes, Michael Cavinder, Eddie Cooper, Victor Cruz, Eboni Flowers, Joel Marsh Garland, Jared Wayne Gladly, Joe Joseph, Jeb Kreager, and Ben Thompson.

Based on a true story, The Fear of 13 follows Nick Yarris, a man who spends more than two decades on death row for a murder he maintains he did not commit. Through a series of prison visits with a volunteer named Jacki, the play traces a life shaped by impulse and consequence, as their evolving relationship blurs the line between witness and participant and raises questions about justice, belief, and the fragile boundary between freedom and self-determination.

Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: The play is closely based on David Sington’s 2015 documentary about Nick Yarris, a Pennsylvania man who spent more than 20 years on Death Row before being exonerated by DNA evidence in 2003. The film is an absorbing 95-minute monologue in which Yarris describes his long ordeal in detail; Ferrentino’s adaptation, though still anchored in narration by Yarris, builds out his stories for an onstage cast of eight. The end result is bigger but not, I fear, better.