The play is based on the incidents that led to the current war in Iraq, and has run in separate stagings in London and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. The Public cast will also feature George Bartenieff as Hans Blix and Jack Straw; Jeffrey DeMunn as Donald Rumsfeld; Glenn Fleshler as George Tenet; Zach Grenier as Dick Cheney; Lameece Issaq as a Palestinian Academic; Peter Francis James as Colin Powell; Ken Marks as David Manning and Michael Gerson; David Pittu as Paul Wolfowitz and Sir Richard Dearlove; Gloria Reuben as Condoleezza Rice; Thomas Schall as Alastair Campbell and Jeremy Greenstock; Armand Schultz as Jonathan Powell and Robin Cook; Robert Sella as an Angry Journalist and Dominique De Villepin; Brenda Wehle as a New Labour Politician and Laura Bush; and Waleed F. Zuaiter as an Iraqi Exile and Trevor Mac.
The oft-employed Jenning, a critics favorite, has played leading parts in such recent productions as The Foreigner, Sight Unseen, Henry IV, A Touch of the Poet and Twelve Angry Men. Sanders has starred in The Taming of the Shrew in Central Park and Lone Star Love Off-Broadway.
Stuff Happens depicts the run-up to the Iraq War. Hare has been at pains to point out that the show is a history play rather than a documentary, with the secret diplomacy imagined and dramatized. It started life at Britain's National Theatre with Alex Jennings as George Bush, directed by Nicholas Hytner. The title is taken from a phrase used by Donald Rumsfeld.
Daniel Sullivan, the Tony-winning Proof director, will helm the production. Sullivan directed Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway production of Rabbit Hole.