Flex

FLEX tells the story of a girls’ high school basketball team from Plainnole, Arkansas. It’s 1997, and the women of the Lady Train team are inspired by the successes of the WNBA. With aspirations of going pro, they must first navigate the pressures of being young, Black, and female in rural Arkansas. Will their fouls off the court tear their team apart? Or can they keep their pact to stick together through hell or high water? This powerful new play by Candrice Jones celebrates the fierce athleticism of women’s basketball with all the adrenaline and swagger of a four-quarter game. Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz (The Skin of Our Teeth, Pipeline, Marys Seacole).

Sit courtside at Lincoln Center Theater for Flex, a new play by Candris C. Jones packed with all the thrill and excitement of a close basketball match. Get Flex tickets on TodayTix.

The Flex play takes place in 1990s Plainnole, Arkansas, the home court of the Lady Train high school basketball team. The girls dream of being the next Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie (founding members of the WNBA) someday, not just looking to get onto a college basketball team, but go pro.

But success isn't as easy as a free throw — besides dealing with individual and interpersonal struggles, being a young Black woman in rural Arkansas means a challenging road from the start.

Jones premiered Flex, naturally, in Arkansas in 2022, and now makes her NYC debut with the show. Lileana Blain-Cruz directs the debut production of Flex in New York, returning to Lincoln Center Theater after having directed Marys Seacole off Broadway and The Skin of Our Teeth on Broadway for the company. Her other recent credits include Michael R. Jackson's White Girl in Danger and the bio-musical Dreaming Zenzile.

Catch a new play, led by an exciting team, that'll have you hooked until the final buzzer. Get Flex tickets on TodayTix now.

What to Watch For

• The actors in Flex off Broadway actually play basketball on stage during the show!
• Flex is set in 1997, the year the WNBA hosted its first games after officially forming the year prior.
• The Newhouse Theater practically doubles as a gym nowadays! In 2017, the venue hosted Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated play about a high school girls' soccer team.
• Basketball is popular off Broadway this season: Flex makes its New York debut shortly after King James, Rajiv Joseph's play about two men who bond over their interest in LeBron James's NBA career.
• The playwright is from Arkansas and is still based there, which is why her plays highlight the lives of people, particularly women, living there and throughout the South.