The Best We Could (a family tragedy)

A daughter’s road trip with her father becomes a theatrical journey across more than just state lines. This funny, wise, and heartbreaking debut from an exciting new writer will be brought to vibrant life by director Daniel Aukin, whom MTC audiences will remember from Fool for Love and Fulfillment Center.

“Captivating and imaginative. The actors are impeccably cast and deliver subtly astonishing performances.” – The New York Times

Pack your bags and start the car! Go on a road trip with Emily Feldman's The Best We Could (a family tragedy), Manhattan Theatre Club's latest Off-Broadway play. Get The Best We Could tickets on TodayTix.

The Best We Could is a play about a father-daughter road trip that takes them on much more than a physical journey. As they go cross-country and travel across state lines, they discuss the changing culture and the state of the world. Their conversations reveal things about each other that neither knew before, and their relationship will never be the same.

The Best We Could is directed by Daniel Aukin, a veteran Off-Broadway director whose credits include Skintight starring Idina Menzel, Apologia starring Stockard Channing, and 4000 Miles, the Pulitzer-nominated play by Amy Herzog. He also received Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for directing and creating The Fortress of Solitude, an Off-Broadway musical.

Get The Best We Could theatre tickets on TodayTix now.

What to Watch For

• Feldman makes her Off-Broadway debut with The Best We Could in New York.
• Aukin is staying booked and busy. He also directed another Off-Broadway play earlier this season: Catch as Catch Can at Playwrights Horizons.
• There's a pattern here! MTC's last Off-Broadway production, Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, has similar themes to The Best We Could. That show saw a father and son take the same road trip, in reverse, years apart.
• Better late than never! The Best We Could was set to premiere with MTC in 2020. Rehearsals were two weeks from starting when the pandemic forced the show's postponement.
• The Best We Could appeared on the 2019 Kilroys List, which honors outstanding little-known and unproduced plays by non-male writers.