Awake and Sing!

Clifford Odets’ searing 1935 masterpiece 'Awake and Sing!' stands as the definitive dramatic portrait of working-class American Jewish survival during the Great Depression. Set inside a cramped, suffocating Bronx apartment, the narrative tracks the Berger family as they struggle against economic collapse, moral erosion, and generational fractures, following young Ralph as he seeks to break free from his mother's ruthless materialism to find purpose. Most famously revived in a multi-Tony Award-winning 2006 Lincoln Center Theater production at the Belasco Theatre directed by Bartlett Sher, the acclaimed staging starred Lauren Ambrose, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Gazzara, and Zoë Wanamaker, delivering a masterclass in American group realism.