CHICAGO — Producers Scott Rudin and Barry Diller said Monday that Samuel D. Hunter’s “Little Bear Ridge Road,” an emotional drama about an aunt and her estranged nephew set during the pandemic in rural Idaho, will open on Broadway for a limited 18-week run this fall. “Little Bear Ridge Road” premiered last summer at Steppenwolf Theatre.

As in Chicago, the show in New York will star Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock, reprising their performances from the production’s world premiere at Steppenwolf. Direction is by Joe Mantello (“Wicked”). Preview performances will begin on Oct. 7 ahead of an Oct. 30 opening night at the Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th St., New York.

This production will mark Rudin’s return to Broadway, after being largely absent following 2021 media accounts alleging abusive treatment of some of his staffers. Rudin has since apologized and said any such behavior won’t be repeated. Inevitably, he remains a controversial figure, but many who work on Broadway and follow its shows miss his formidable producing abilities and his voracious appetite for making new plays work in a commercial arena. He has paid much attention to new work coming from Steppenwolf over the years.

“It’s a beautiful, singular play that deals with subject matter I had never seen a play take on, and it was being done by old and good friends and frequent collaborators of many years,” Rudin told the Tribune Monday. “I love Sam’s plays. It’s a remarkably easy production to believe in.”

Sources close to Steppenwolf say there was much internal debate about the theater’s involvement in this Broadway transfer. The Chicago institution has long and important relationships with both Metcalf, one of its best-known stars, and Mantello, an acclaimed director. Both have similarly close relationships with Rudin, who has produced several shows starring Metcalf.

Some in the ensemble believed that the play deserved its shot on Broadway with the theater’s backing and Rudin producing; others wanted to try and make alternate arrangements for a commercial transfer. In the end, the company decided to release the play and the cast but to remove its name from the production.

That said, everyone still will know from whence it came.

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