‘What the Constitution Means to Me’ Transfers to Broadway

“What the Constitution Means to Me,” a buzzy Off-Broadway production that counts Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem among its fans, is making the move uptown.

The play will come to Broadway this spring for a 12-week limited run at the Helen Hayes Theater. “What the Constitution Means to Me” is one part civics lesson, one part personal memoir. Playwright and star Heidi Schreck drew on her life to recount how she earned her college tuition money by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. Over the course of the show, Schreck talks about four generations of women in her own family and dramatizes the way that foundational document shaped their lives by outlining their rights as citizens.

The play is a timely one, given the fierce debates about birthright citizenship, executive power, originalism, and the declaring of national emergencies based on shoddy facts that are currently revolving around Donald Trump’s White House. It’s hard to even predict what constitutional crisis might be raging when previews for the show begin on March 14. A whole different set may be dominating the headlines when opening night takes plays just a few weeks later on March 31.

Before heading to Broadway, “What the Constitution Means to Me” was extended twice at New York Theater Workshop and ultimately transferred to the larger Greenwich House Theater. “What the Constitution Means to Me” will be produced by Diana DiMenna, Aaron Glick, and Matt Ross. It will be directed by Oliver Butler (“The Amateurs”), and will feature the full off-Broadway cast including Schreck, Mike Iveson (“The Sound and the Fury”) and New York City high school students Rosdely Ciprian and Thursday Williams. It marks the Broadway debuts of the entire cast.

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