A Notable Crowd Attended Laura Linney’s Debut in My Name Is Lucy Barton on Broadway

The titular character in My Name Is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout’s 2016 best-selling novel, is a writer who grew up in rural Illinois before finding success—financial and literary—in New York. “I had made money,” Barton says, in comical disbelief. “What writer makes money?”

Well, the joke is on Strout because Rona Munro’s Broadway production based on the novel (which opened last night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater) is already getting glowing reviews. With a perfectly cast Laura Linney as Barton, it’s a well-developed page to the stage adaption.

“If there was one person that could do it, I thought that’s Laura Linney,” Strout said on opening night. “She’s just Lucy Barton.”

Munro agreed, “With Laura, people who love the book are going to see the character that they saw in their mind’s eye.”

Indeed, the audience was stacked with super fans (several came with a copy of the book in hopes for an autograph)—Cynthia Nixon, Blythe Danner, and Anna Wintour among them—who laughed at every punch line, as if on cue. After a rousing standing ovation for Linney, Strout, and Munro, who joined hands onstage, everyone migrated to the rooftop at the Copacabana for the after-party.

But not before Linney appeared in what was her second transformation of the evening: A dramatic fit-and-flare gown with a mermaid hem designed by Christian Siriano, who was also on hand for the evening.

“We actually found the dress months ago, and what I loved is that she remembered it,” he said. “Not every client is like that—they’re already onto the next one.” Siriano also dressed Linney for the 2019 Tony Awards, and chances are, we’ll be seeing the actor in another one of his fabulous creations (along with a best-actress nomination) on Broadway’s biggest night come June.