Jonathan Kent Replaces Daniel Sullivan as MONTAUK on Broadway Director

Olivier and Tony Award nominee Jonathan Kent (Broadway: Medea, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Faith Healer, The Height of the Storm at MTC), will direct Manhattan Theatre Club’s world premiere of Montauk by Olivier Award winner David Hare  and featuring five-time Tony Award nominee and four-time Emmy Award winner Laura Linney. Montauk begins performances on Tuesday, March 30, 2027, and opens Monday, April 19, 2027, on Broadway at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Montauk reunites Hare and Kent, who have previously collaborated on such acclaimed productions as The Rules of the Game, Peter Gynt, and The Young Chekhov Trilogy (Platonov, Ivanov, and The Seagull).

Kent replaces the previously announced Daniel Sullivan, who is retiring after a 55-year career as a Tony Award-winning director. Sullivan had an especially prolific relationship with MTC, directing 20 shows for the company on all three of its stages, including David Auburn’s Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning Proof, for which Sullivan also won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. His other heralded productions for MTC include Donald Margulies’ Sight Unseen and Time Stands Still; David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole and Good People; Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes; and David Auburn’s Summer, 1976. He also served as Interim Artistic Director during Lynne Meadow’s 2007-08 sabbatical. His many celebrated Broadway directing credits include I’m Not Rappaport; The Heidi Chronicles; Conversations with My Father; The Sisters Rosensweig; Ah, Wilderness!; A Moon for the Misbegotten; Morning’s at Seven; Julius Caesar; The Merchant of Venice; and Glengarry Glen Ross; and The Public Theater’s production of Hare’s Stuff Happens, among others.

“It has been a privilege to bring stories to life alongside the most brilliant artists in the theatre, but I feel it’s time for me to step into a well-earned retirement,” Daniel Sullivan commented. “I am proudly passing the directorial honors of David Hare’s new play to Jonathan Kent. He is a visionary of immense talent, and I have absolutely no doubt he will do a masterful job bringing this extraordinary new work to life.”

“Working with David is always a profound joy. His writing is as vital, witty and razor-sharp as ever, and delving into a world premiere play of his is exhilarating,” Kent commented. “To collaborate as well with Laura Linney is an exquisite gift. She possesses an emotional depth that perfectly aligns with David’s writing, and I cannot wait to explore this extraordinary piece together in the rehearsal room.”

A world premiere play by two-time Olivier Award winner David Hare and directed by Olivier and Tony Award nominee Jonathan Kent, Montauk will star four-time Emmy Award winner Laura Linney.