Richard Nelson's We'll See Opens Off-Broadway
The latest Apple Family play is set on the night of the 2026 midterm election and premiered at the Public Theater.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Children’s Theater
Richard Nelson's We'll See, the newest entry in his series following the Apple family of Rhinebeck, New York, premiered Off-Broadway at the Public Theater on November 3, 2026. The play is set on the night of the 2026 U.S. midterm election and is running in an extended engagement through November 29.
Why it matters
The Apple Family series has tracked one household across several years of American public life, and this installment places its characters on election night itself. For New York City theatergoers, the extended run offers a new chance to see a long-running stage series at the Public Theater.
The production runs from its November 3, 2026 opening through a scheduled end date of November 29, 2026, under an extended engagement. Attendance figures and ticket sales have not been reported.
The players
Richard Nelson
Playwright and director who created the Apple Family series, a sequence of plays following a family in Rhinebeck, New York, across election cycles and personal changes.
Public Theater
New York City nonprofit theater company founded by Joseph Papp that presents new and classic work and hosts the Off-Broadway premiere of We'll See.
The details
The play reunites Jay O. Sanders, Sally Murphy, Maryann Plunkett, and Laila Robins from earlier Apple Family productions, with Yvonne Woods joining as Yvonne. Scenic design is by Jason Ardizzone-West, costumes by Susan Hilferty, lighting by Jennifer Tipton, and sound and music by Scott Lehrer, with Nicole Caroselli as production stage manager and Molly Foy as stage manager.
Timeline
November 3, 2026: We'll See opens Off-Broadway at the Public Theater.
November 29, 2026: The extended run is scheduled to end.
Series Context
We'll See extends the Apple Family cycle that began with That Hopey Changey Thing, which took the family's stage conversations through the 2008 election. Like its predecessors, the new play treats a national election as a backdrop for private family discussion.
Tickets are available for the extended Off-Broadway run at the Public Theater through November 29, 2026. Audiences can see the production in person in Manhattan during that window.
The takeaway
Long-running series such as the Apple Family plays show how a single household can serve as a lens on changing national moods over successive election cycles. Theatergoers who follow the series can see how the characters' conversations shift from one installment to the next.
Further reading
For more from the city's stages, explore Children's Theater in New York City.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Playbill.
