Kenneth Lonergan

1982–1999: Early theater work

Lonergan's first theatrical success came with the play This Is Our Youth (1996) which opened off-Broadway Intar Theatre by The New Group. The play revolved around three young adults navigating friendship, identity, and disillusionment in 1980s New York City. The cast included Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton, and Missy Yager and was directed by Mark Brokaw.^[10] Greg Evans of Variety wrote, "What we have is two hours of conversation among the three characters, and as finely written as the dialogue is" adding, "Lonergan’s ear is unfailing".^[11]

Lonergan's breakthrough play, The Waverly Gallery (2000), based on his grandmother's Greenwich Village gallery, revolves around a family reacting to an elderly woman in early stages of dementia. The original cast included Eileen Heckart, Josh Hamilton, Maureen Anderman, and Mark Blum. It opened Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theater in March 2000 directed by Scott Ellis. Charles Isherwood of Variety declared, "Anyone who has lived through this sad process with a relative will be awed by the verisimilitude of both Heckart's acting and Lonergan's writing."^[12] For his work he was named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.^[13]

Lonergan's film career started with his screenplay for the crime comedy Analyze This (1999) starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal as a gangster and his therapist, respectively. Lonergan directed his own screenplay for You Can Count on Me (2000) which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. The film starred Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, earning Lonergan a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.^[14] He was subsequently offered a job writing the live-action comedy The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000).

2002–2016: Work as a film director

In 2001 he wrote the play Lobby Hero which premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons starring Glenn Fitzgerald, Heather Burns, and Tate Donovan. In 2002, Lonergan contributed to the screenplay for Martin Scorsese's historical epic Gangs of New York (2002) for which he earned his second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2005, filming took place for his second film as writer/director, Margaret, starring Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick, and J. Smith-Cameron. The film was in post-production for over five years, with Lonergan, the producers and various editors unable to agree on its final cut, resulting in multiple legal disputes. It was finally released in 2011.^[1] Margaret ranked 31st in a 2016 BBC poll of the 21st century's greatest films.^[15] His play The Starry Messenger premiered Off-Broadway in 2009 and starred his wife J. Smith-Cameron, Matthew Broderick, and Kieran Culkin.^[16]

In August 2014, This Is Our Youth was revived on Broadway starring Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, and Tavi Gevinson at the Cort Theatre. The play would be the first of Lonergan's work to make it to Broadway. He received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Alexis Soloski of The Guardian wrote, "Though still hewing to drama school rules–small cast, single set, neat inciting incident–it has a mature, post-grad voice, sensitive and humane and jammed full of totally splendid crackerjack-with-a-toy-surprise dialogue".^[17]

Lonergan wrote and directed the drama film Manchester by the Sea (2016) starring Casey Affleck, Lucas Hedges, and Michelle Williams, which was released to critical acclaim.^[18] He also had a small part in the film, as a pedestrian. David Fear of Rolling Stone said the film proves that Lonergan is "practically peerless in portraying loss as a living, breathing thing without resorting to the vocabulary of griefporn."^[19] He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film.^[20] He also won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for Manchester by the Sea at the 70th British Academy Film Awards. That same year he wrote the play Hold On to Me Darling (2016) which starred Timothy Olyphant as a country music star and ran at the Atlantic Theatre Company's Linda Gross Theatre.

2017–present

Lonergan adapted the E.M. Forster novel Howards End into a 2017 miniseries of the same name for BBC/Starz starring Hayley Atwell and Matthew Macfadyen.^[21] When addressing the challenges of adapting the novel to screen he told The Times of London, “You don’t want to be apologizing for a book that was written in 1910, nor do you want to be writing material whose main purpose is to tell the audience that you don’t agree with these views".^[22] In March 2018, a second play of his, Lobby Hero was revived on Broadway, this time starring Chris Evans, Michael Cera, Brian Tyree Henry, and Bel Powley at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Lobby is still a smart, thoughtful piece of work, fairy-dusted by the starry presence of its celebrated cast".^[23] The play received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Cera and Tyree Henry were also nominated for their performances.^[24]

In September 2018 a third show of his, The Waverly Gallery, starring Elaine May, Lucas Hedges, Joan Allen, David Cromer, and Michael Cera, was revived at the John Golden Theatre. Greg Evans of Deadline Hollywood praised the production but highlighted May saying, "this production will be remembered for the stunning Elaine May. She’s so good here that there are moments you’ll swear she isn’t acting. Did she really forget that line? It feels a privilege to watch this legend transform Lonergan’s meditation on dignity, regret and ungraspable memory into something indelible and lasting."^[25] The production received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. May won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

During that time Lonergan took small supporting roles in projects such as Noah Baumbach's absurdist comedy-drama White Noise (2022) and the Netflix thriller miniseries Ripley (2024). In 2024, Lonergan's play Hold On to Me Darling was revived off-Broadway starring Adam Driver at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.^[26]

Film

Television

Theater