Cast Set For JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN at City Lit Theater
The show will open to the press on Saturday, August 2 at 7:30 pm, following previews from July 25, and playing through September 7.
By: Stephi Wild Jun. 06, 2025
City Lit Theater’s 45th season will open in July with Stephen Adly Guirgis’s JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN, an explosive contemporary drama about a young Latino charged with murder who is incarcerated in New York City’s infamous Riker’s Island prison. The play helped to establish Guirgis as one of the current century’s leading American dramatists and in 2018, THE NEW YORK TIMES ranked it as the 14th best American play of the previous 25 years. Chicago-based director and actor Esteban Andres Cruz (they/them), who won a Jeff Award in 2009 for their portrayal of the play’s leading character Angel Cruz, is directing. JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN will open to the press on Saturday, August 2 at 7:30 pm, following previews from July 25, and playing through September 7.
For this City Lit production, the leading role of Angel will be played by 2024 University of Michigan graduate Lenin Izquierdo, who in his first year in Chicago has performed with the Goodman (NEW WORKS FEST), understudied at Chicago Shakespeare (SHORT SHAKESPEARE: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM) and appeared on CHICAGO FIRE. Maria Stephens has been cast as Angel’s public defender, Mary Jane Hanrahan. Stephens was a member of the Jeff award-winning ensemble of RIGHT NOW in 2023 at Facility Theatre, for which she earned an individual Jeff nomination for performer in a supporting role. Bradford Stevens, seen recently in THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER at Raven Theatre, will appear as Lucius Jenkins, a charismatic serial killer who has found religion in prison. Chicago storefront theater veteran Manny Tamayo, who has performed with such companies as The Hypocrites, Stage Left and Lifeline Theatre, will play the ruthless Rikers correction officer Valdez. Michael Dailey, a company member with Strawdog Theatre, has been cast as corrections officer D’Amico.
Top Row L-R: Lenin Izquierdo, Maria Stephens, Bradford Stevens.
Lower Row L-R: Manny Tamayo, Michael Dailey. Click on image to access file.
Director Cruz has a long history with playwright Guirgis, including originating the role of Venus Ramirez in Guirgis’s HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN at Atlantic Theatre Company in New York City. Cruz has been collaborating with Guirgis on new plays since 2018 and is currently working on a stage adaptation of the Warner Brothers / Al Pacino film DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Cruz’s Production Team for JESUS HOPPED THE’A’ TRAIN will include Tianxuan Chen (Scenic Design), Josiah Croegaert (Lighting Design), Jazmin Aurora Medina (Costume Design), Warren Levon (Sound Design), Andres Fiz (Projection Design), and Meghann Tabor (Assistant Director). Charlotte Davies will serve as stage manager.
JESUS HOPPED THE 'A' TRAIN premiered Off-Broadway at the East 13th Street Theatre in New York City on November 29, 2000, in a production by LAByrinth Theater Company, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Following its New York debut, the play was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in August 2001 and later staged at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 2002, where it was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2003. In 2017, the play returned to New York City as part of playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis' residency at Signature Theatre Company. Jesse Green of THE NEW YORK TIMES listed that production as one of the best plays of 2017, saying “Where is God — where is good — in the criminal justice system? The questions don’t so much hover over Stephen Adly Guirgis’s play as yank at it with gale force.”
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