On 9 November 2006 previews of David Hare's new play, The Vertical Hour, began at the Music Box Theatre in New York. Directed by Sam Mendes, it starred Julianne Moore, best known for her work as a Hollywood actress (which includes the 2002 film The Hours, for which Hare wrote the screenplay), and British actor Bill Nighy (whose association with Hare's work extends back over twenty-five years to the television film Dreams of Leaving). Although the show was the tenth of Hare's to play on Broadway (and at one point, in the late 1990s, he had three running concurrently), it was the first to première there and the only new play in the autumn season. Mendes, shortly before the first performance, recalled Neil Simon's remark that 'previewing in New York is like having a gynaecological examination in Times Square'; Hare himself admitted that 'Absolutely nobody opens a play cold on Broadway. Broadway's meant to be a place you reach, not a place you begin. It will be the most nerve-racking time of my life.'