Playing Burton

Playing Burton is a play about Richard Burton, the Welsh actor. Mark Jenkins wrote it, and Bartlett Sher directs. Lincoln Center Theater lists it as an Off-Broadway production in its 2026-27 season, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. As of October 2026, performance dates have not been announced.

The play is built around a single performer. As of October 2026, Lincoln Center Theater names Matthew Rhys as Richard Burton and lists no other actors. Rhys was born in Cardiff and won an Emmy in 2018 for his lead role in the series The Americans.

The New York engagement follows an earlier production. The play was presented in 2025 by Welsh National Theatre on a tour of Wales and in London, and the Lincoln Center Theater listing keeps the same writer, director and star.

The play is set on the last night of Burton's life. Over the course of that evening he looks back on what he leaves behind, and the look back takes in his marriages to Elizabeth Taylor. Burton and Taylor married in 1964, divorced in 1974, married again in 1975 and divorced a second time in 1976.

The 2025 version gives a wider sense of the shape. It followed Burton from a poor start in South Wales to a place among the leading performers of his generation. It also covered his relationship with Taylor and the drinking problem he battled in full view of the public. The New York listing does not give a longer summary, so how closely this staging follows that outline is not yet public.

Mark Jenkins wrote the play. It is a solo piece: the 2025 production was billed as a one-man play, and the New York listing credits one actor. Fame, ambition and identity were the subjects named for the 2025 production.

Richard Burton was born in 1925 in Pontrhydyfen, a village in Wales, and died in 1984. The play belonged to RB100, the celebration of the centenary of his birth.

Welsh National Theatre, a new company associated with Michael Sheen, staged the 2025 version, and ticket proceeds supported the company. The tour crossed Wales in November 2025 and also stopped in London, where the Old Vic gave it two performances on November 16, 2025. The final date, on November 26, 2025, was in Pontrhydyfen, the village where Burton was born.

Rhys had prepared a production of the play when Covid-19 hit, but it was never performed on stage.