1980s–1990s: Early success off-Broadway with This Is Our Youth and The Waverly Gallery Lonergan's first theatrical success came with the play
This Is Our Youth (1996) which opened
off-Broadway Intar Theatre by
The New Group. The play revolved around three young adults navigating friendship, identity, and disillusionment in 1980s
New York City. The cast included
Mark Ruffalo,
Josh Hamilton, and Missy Yager and was directed by
Mark Brokaw. Greg Evans of
Variety wrote, "What we have is two hours of conversation among the three characters, and as finely written as the dialogue is" adding, "Lonergan’s ear is unfailing". Lonergan's breakthrough play,
The Waverly Gallery (2000), based on his grandmother's
Greenwich Village gallery, revolves around a family reacting to an elderly woman in early stages of
dementia. The original cast included
Eileen Heckart,
Josh Hamilton,
Maureen Anderman, and
Mark Blum. It opened Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theater in March 2000 directed by
Scott Ellis. Charles Isherwood of
Variety declared, "Anyone who has lived through this sad process with a relative will be awed by the verisimilitude of both Heckart's acting and Lonergan's writing." For his work he was named as a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Lonergan's film career started with his screenplay for the crime comedy
Analyze This (1999) starring
Robert De Niro and
Billy Crystal as a gangster and his therapist, respectively.
2000s: First Academy Award nomination, Lobby Hero play, Margaret legal issues Lonergan directed his own screenplay for
You Can Count on Me (2000) which was executive produced by
Martin Scorsese. The film starred
Laura Linney and
Mark Ruffalo, earning Lonergan a nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He was subsequently offered a job writing the live-action comedy
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000). In 2001 he wrote the play
Lobby Hero which premiered off-Broadway at
Playwrights Horizons starring
Glenn Fitzgerald,
Heather Burns, and
Tate Donovan. In 2002, Lonergan contributed to the screenplay for
Martin Scorsese's historical epic
Gangs of New York (2002) for which he earned his second nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2005, filming took place for his second film as writer/director,
Margaret, starring
Anna Paquin,
Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick, and J. Smith-Cameron. The film was in post-production for over five years, with Lonergan, the producers and various editors unable to agree on its final cut, resulting in multiple legal disputes. It was finally released in 2011. His play
The Starry Messenger premiered
Off-Broadway in 2009 and starred his wife
J. Smith-Cameron,
Matthew Broderick, and
Kieran Culkin.
2010s–2020s: Academy Award win for Manchester by the Sea and Broadway revivals In August 2014,
This Is Our Youth was revived on Broadway starring
Michael Cera,
Kieran Culkin, and
Tavi Gevinson at the
Cort Theatre. The play would be the first of Lonergan's work to make it to Broadway. He received a nomination for the
Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Alexis Soloski of
The Guardian wrote, "Though still hewing to drama school rules–small cast, single set, neat inciting incident–it has a mature, post-grad voice, sensitive and humane and jammed full of totally splendid crackerjack-with-a-toy-surprise dialogue". Lonergan wrote and directed the drama film
Manchester by the Sea (2016) starring
Casey Affleck,
Lucas Hedges, and
Michelle Williams, which was released to critical acclaim. He also had a small part in the film, as a pedestrian. David Fear of
Rolling Stone said the film proves that Lonergan is "practically peerless in portraying loss as a living, breathing thing without resorting to the vocabulary of griefporn." He was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Director and received the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film. He also won the
BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for
Manchester by the Sea at the
70th British Academy Film Awards. That same year he wrote the play
Hold On to Me Darling (2016) which starred
Timothy Olyphant as a country music star and ran at the
Atlantic Theatre Company's
Linda Gross Theatre. Lonergan adapted the
E.M. Forster novel
Howards End into a 2017
miniseries of the same name for
BBC/
Starz starring
Hayley Atwell and
Matthew Macfadyen. When addressing the challenges of adapting the novel to screen he told
The Times of London, “You don’t want to be apologizing for a book that was written in 1910, nor do you want to be writing material whose main purpose is to tell the audience that you don’t agree with these views". In March 2018, a second play of his,
Lobby Hero was revived on Broadway, this time starring
Chris Evans,
Michael Cera,
Brian Tyree Henry, and
Bel Powley at the
Helen Hayes Theatre. Leah Greenblatt of
Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Lobby is still a smart, thoughtful piece of work, fairy-dusted by the starry presence of its celebrated cast". The play received a nomination for the
Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Cera and Tyree Henry were also nominated for their performances. In September 2018 a third show of his,
The Waverly Gallery, starring
Elaine May,
Lucas Hedges,
Joan Allen,
David Cromer, and
Michael Cera, was revived at the
John Golden Theatre. Greg Evans of
Deadline Hollywood praised the production but highlighted May saying, "this production will be remembered for the stunning Elaine May. She’s so good here that there are moments you’ll swear she isn’t acting. Did she really forget that line? It feels a privilege to watch this legend transform Lonergan’s meditation on dignity, regret and ungraspable memory into something indelible and lasting." The production received a nomination for the
Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. May won the
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. During the early 2020s, Lonergan took small supporting roles in projects such as
Noah Baumbach's absurdist comedy-drama
White Noise (2022) and the
Netflix thriller miniseries
Ripley (2024). In 2024, Lonergan's play
Hold On to Me Darling was revived off-Broadway starring
Adam Driver at the
Lucille Lortel Theatre. ==Reception==