Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope in The Collaboration on Broadway Tickets

By: Anthony McCarten
Director: Kwame Kwei-Armah
Producer: Manhattan Theatre Club
Cast list: Paul Bettany (as Andy Warhol), Jeremy Pope (as John-Michel Basquiat)

Warhol and Basquiat were an odd-couple pair, each of whom brought a different perspective to the studio: Warhol was in his 50s, white, embracing consumer culture in his pop art, and past his career's peak. Basquiat was in his 20s, Black, rebelling against commercialism in his Neo-Expressionist work, and just getting started in the art world.

Their collaboration ultimately fizzled out nearly as quickly as it began, but playwright Anthony McCarten dives into the brief, explosive era where they philosophized, traded blows, and sometimes, found common ground, not knowing their work would be both their swan songs.

Bettany and Pope starred in the show's world premiere in London and reprise their roles for The Collaboration on Broadway. Bettany is best known for his onscreen roles in Marvel projects like WandaVision and The Avengers: Infinity War, as well as The Da Vinci Code and Master and Commander. He has also performed in multiple London stage productions, but The Collaboration is his Broadway debut. Pope got his start as a stage actor, who in 2019 became one of only six actors in history to be Tony-nominated for two separate performances in the same year. He starred in Ain't Too Proud and Choir Boy, and he's also appeared in Hollywood, Pose, and The Inspection on screen.

McCarten, a playwright and screenwriter, has made a successful career of semi-fictional works. His films The Two Popes, about Popes Benedict XVI and Pope Francis; The Theory of Everything, about Stephen Hawking; and Bohemian Rhapsody, about Freddie Mercury, all received Oscar nominations. The Collaboration is not his first work to originate on stage (The Two Popes was adapted from his play The Pope), but it is McCarten's first Broadway play.

What to Watch For

• The Collaboration's Broadway premiere is a kind of homecoming. Much of the play is set in New York: The artists work in a studio there, and their joint exhibit, Paintings, was displayed at a gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood.
• Bruno Bischofberger, the art dealer who brought Warhol and Basquiat together, likened their exhibit to a boxing match: He wanted to create public buzz about which artist was better. Bischofberger is a minor character in The Collaboration.
• Warhol was also an indie filmmaker who created more than 60 movies. This part of his career is left out of The Collaboration, but the stage design includes projections as a nod to his film work.
• A film adaptation of The Collaboration with Pope and Bettany is in the works.
• McCarten has two Broadway shows in the 2022-23 season. He wrote the book for A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical, which also begins performances in November.