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“I think addiction is the best way to describe being stuck in a sin,” explains Cult of Love author Leslye Headland, “because I don't see sin as like a transgression. I see sin as something that you are living, that you are stuck in.” The playwright recently made her Broadway debut with this sharp comedy, the final script in her Seven Deadly Plays series.

Cult of Love sucks audiences into a Christmas gathering from hell. The adult children of the Dahl family gather at their parents home for holiday celebrations, folk songs, and the airing of grievances. The playwright admits she was inspired by aspects of her own life, but the family is entirely fictional. “It's taking my family, and extended family, and putting them in a blender,” Headland tells Gold Derby, “creating characters that are important for the play rather than shoehorning the play into my own experience.”

Explosive...

Shailene Woodley made her Broadway debut with a ton of celebs in the audience supporting her!

The Emmy-nominated actress took her opening night bow in the new play Cult of Love on Thursday night (December 12) at the Hayes Theater in New York City.

Shailene is starring in the play alongside Zachary Quinto, Barbie Ferreira, Chris Lowell, Molly Bernard, and more.

Here’s the play’s synopsis: “It’s the holiday season for the Dahl family! The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. Will the love the Dahls have for each other be enough to get them through, or will this be their last Christmas together?”

Cult of Love...

It’s that time of year for the Dahls, the close-knit Christian family at the center of Leslye Headland’s bleak and biting new play Cult of Love. Christmas is their favorite holiday, an occasion for the four adult children (plus their spouses) to convene at the elder Dahls’ house and imbibe on batch Manhattans, gorge on dense confectionaries, stow away extra figgy pudding and sing carols exalting their Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

No matter that a handful of the Dahls are having a crisis of faith, that one might be losing their memory, that another is in active recovery from drug addiction and a third might be buckling under the weight of their mental health issues. The Dahls, in service of their own self-image, prefer to lie and deny.

Produced by Second Stage and now at The Helen Hayes theater in New York, Cult of Love (directed by...

Actors David Rasche and Mare Winningham have joined the previously announced production of Leslye Headland’s Cult of Love and a cast that includes Zachary Quinto, Shailene Woodley, Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell, Christopher Sears, and Barbie Ferreira.

The Second Stage Theater production will be directed by Trip Cullman and begins previews November 20 at the Helen Hayes Theater, with an official opening on December 12.

Rasche and Winningham will play Bill and Ginny Dahl, the parents of a fractured family. The synopsis: “It’s the holiday season for the Dahl family! The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served.

Shailene Woodley and Barbie Ferreira are headed to Broadway!

The actresses were just announced to be cast in the upcoming new play Cult of Love, both making their debuts on the Great White Way.

Leslye Headland, creator of Star Wars series The Acolyte, penned the script for the show, which also marks her Broadway debut.

Keep reading to find out more…

Cult of Love centers around the holiday season for the Dahl family.

Here’s a synopsis: The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. Will the love the Dahls have for each other be enough to get them through, or will this be their last Christmas together?

Roberta Colindrez...

Cult of Love, the upcoming new Broadway play by Star Wars: The Acolyte writer and showrunner Leslye Headland, will feature a cast that includes Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies), Zachary Quinto (American Horror Story), and Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria), producers announced today.

The Second Stage Theater production, directed by Trip Cullman, also will feature Molly Bernard (Younger), Roberta Colindrez (Broadway’s Fun Home), Rebecca Henderson (Star Wars: Acolyte), Christopher Lowell (Glow) and Christopher Sears (Off Broadway’s The Harvest).

Quinto is no stranger to Broadway – his credits include The Boys in the Band and The Glass Menagerie – while Woodley and Ferrari will be making their Broadway debuts.

The play, in its New York premiere, will begin previews on November 20 at Second Stage’s Helen Hayes Theater, with an official opening on December 12.

Additional casting will be announced shortly.

As previously announced, the synopsis reads: “It’s the holiday season for the Dahl family!

Shailene Woodley has joined the cast of the upcoming Broadway play Cult of Love from Leslye Headland, the creator of The Acolyte.

She joins Zachary Quinto and Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira, who have also boarded the play about four adult children from the Dahl family returning to their childhood home with their partners for the Christmas holidays, only to see their harmony interrupted as old and new conflicts arise.

Big Little Lies star Woodley, who currently appears in the Three Women TV series for Starz, is making her Broadway debut, as is Headland. The play’s ensemble cast also includes Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell and Christopher Sears.

Woodley’s other credits include the Divergent film series and roles in The Fault in Our Stars, The Spectacular Now and The Descendants. Bernard is best known for playing Lauren Heller on Younger. She also starred in Milkwater and...