Proof
Opening Night: April 16, 2026
Theater: Booth Theatre
Website: proofbroadway.com
Emmy Winner Ayo Edebiri and Golden Globe Winner Don Cheadle make their long-awaited Broadway debuts in David Auburn’s Pulitzer and Tony Award–winning PROOF. Directed by Tony winner Thomas Kail (Hamilton), this landmark revival returns to Broadway for the first time: reawakening a haunting story of brilliance, inheritance, and belief. Catherine (Edebiri), the brilliant but restless daughter of renowned mathematics professor Robert (Cheadle), is thrust into turmoil when a notebook containing a revelatory proof is discovered after his death. As debate erupts over its true authorship, Catherine must confront the power of legacy, and the cost of proving herself.
BUY TICKETSREAD THE REVIEWS:
April 16, 2026
Cheadle and Edebiri are both down-to-earth and unshowy in their clear affection for each other, and they’re warmly believable as parent and child. Cheadle is laid back to the point of liquidity; he’s the only star I’ve ever seen get entrance applause for lying on a love-seat. Edebiri, though, is in another league. At several points, she manages a crucial stage trick: She can seem to shrink, collapsing inward, while the audience registers an expanding sense of presence. It will serve her beautifully in other roles.
READ THE REVIEW
April 16, 2026
Proof is so structurally sound that any production can have an impact, which is both a gift in theory and a potential liability in practice. Both sides of that equation are why Thomas Kail’s current Broadway revival at the Booth Theatre is generally effective, but rarely as emotionally charged as it should be. It is rock-solid in its competence, which is ideal for the newcomers in attendance to see stars Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle up close. But those who know how thrilling this play could be will find themselves wishing for Kail to have done anything to test the play’s mathematical precision.
READ THE REVIEW
April 16, 2026
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.
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2026
While it may take the production a moment to fully kick into gear, Proof’s effective performances from its four-member cast will keep theatergoers engrossed in all of its mathematical complexities and human eccentricities until the very end.
READ THE REVIEW
April 16, 2026
“Proof” remains a scintillating play. Its questions about hereditary mental illness, the truth, and who can be labeled a genius — especially with a Black woman at the center — continue to resonate. Cheadle, Young, and Ha deliver effortless portrayals. They anchor the story in time and space with dynamic, heartfelt performances. Yet, because Edebiri simply doesn’t work as the lead, this revival doesn’t quite knock it out of the park.
READ THE REVIEW
April 16, 2026
The more seasoned Broadway actors have the run of the stage: Ha’s Hal is layered and endearing, and Kara Young—as Catherine’s bougie and bossy sister, Claire, a currency analyst—is terrific as always, spinning out inventive riffs of comedic business while also conveying genuine concern. (Is there nothing the dazzling Young can’t do?) They all have moments, but the equilibrium is off, and the pace lags when Claire is offstage. I would be interested to see Proof later in the run, when Edebiri has relaxed into her role and the production has had more time to work out the lumps, the approximations, the spots where you can see the stitches. It gets where it needs to go; what it lacks, at least for now, is elegance.
READ THE REVIEW
April 16, 2026
On stage, in her Broadway debut, Edebiri leaves it to the other actors to carry the drama. That’s not a great choice, but it makes for an effective first act, because the other actors are so good. In the second act, Catherine becomes fully alive. She takes control of her life, and in facing that character’s struggles head-on, Edebiri has to deliver a more vivid performance. Instead, she retreats to mannerisms, delivering facial tics and verbal hesitations. There’s a big hole in the middle of this “Proof.”
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2026
A few technical missteps are nonetheless minor compared with the serious performance troubles at the heart of Kail’s Proof. And yet, the unassuming strength of Auburn’s writing manages to shine through that onslaught of actorly miscalculation. We still crave answers to the play’s mild mysteries, still chuckle ruefully at its subtly recurring motifs. This production’s handwriting may be awfully messy, but the basic math of it all is sound as ever.
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2026
“Proof” is one of the best American dramas to emerge in the last decade of the 20th century, a script ripe for revival not least for how beautifully it focuses on a little family of imperfect humans, all loving each other in their own flawed ways and better able to deal with monumental thoughts than the thornier challenges of just getting out of bed when grief has overtaken you. It’s a lovely play, brought thrillingly back to life.
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2026
It’s altogether a pleasure to watch the play unfold, as it makes room for hope. Mathematicians seek to eliminate ambiguity, but life’s not like that. But there are zero debates about the cast stepping up. As Claire, Young, a four-time Tony nominee who’s won for Purlie Victorious and Purpose, hits all her notes as the acerbic and bossy but loving sister. Ha brings heaps of dorky appeal as Hal, who’s drawn to Catherine — and to a shot at advancing his career. Cheadle fills the addled dad with heart and raw vulnerability.
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2026
All of the scenes in the play are so dramatically complete, they could almost stand on their own…and after each one concludes, the audience is moved to applaud. That doesn’t happen very often and it’s proof of the play’s virtuosity. It all adds up to one exceptional piece of theater.
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2026
It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes, though, (a) to remember how good the original Proof was; (b) to marvel about how it seems somehow new, even if you did see the original four times; and (c) to realize within the first scene that the play actually seems better, while fighting not to miss a word or thought propelled across the footlights. Proof was wonderful back in 2000, yes, in the original production at Manhattan Theatre Club and as it continued through a two-year run at the Walter Kerr. But why is it decidedly more gripping than before?
READ THE REVIEWApril 16, 2026
It’s the casting that helps bring “Proof” genuinely up to date. Since the play’s original run, we’ve become more aware real-life pioneers, such as in the the 2016 book and movie “Hidden Figures,” based on the true story of the accomplishments made by, and discrimination faced by, Katherine Johnson, a mathematician and two colleagues, all of them Black women, who worked for NASA. It feels worth mentioning that, if there is such a thing as a famous mathematician these days (presently alive, as opposed to, say, Pythagoras or Euclid, or Isaac Newton) it would Terence Tao, a naturalized American citizen born of Chinese immigrant parents in Australia, who is a professor at UCLA.
READ THE REVIEW
April 16, 2026
Yes, the show about mathematicians has its problems — Kail’s shrugging direction, such as it is, being the biggest. And yet Auburn’s ironclad script alone remains exceedingly enjoyable, especially for lucky newbies who don’t know the bombshell that’s coming. Add to that Edebiri, who, while not giving the career-defining performance Parker did, is nonetheless worth seeing. Unlike with a proof, a few out-of-place elements don’t always send an entire production into the trash bin.
READ THE REVIEW
April 16, 2026
As it is, the show comes off lumpy and soft, with the inelegancies of the text left exposed and its sharper points insufficiently filed. If Proof can still sparkle and snap, Kail isn’t proving it. And despite their eminent likability, Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle — in the central roles of Catherine and her father, Robert — may even be the wrong actors.
READ THE REVIEW