Full cast announced for MTC's Brooklyn Boy

By: Dec. 13, 2004
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Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer) is pleased to announce full casting for their upcoming world premiere production of BROOKLYN BOY by Donald Margulies, directed by Daniel Sullivan.  The production is being co-produced with South Coast Repertory. 

The cast features Adam Arkin, Polly Draper, Ari Graynor, Arye Gross, Kevin Isola, Mimi Lieber and Allan Miller.

Brooklyn Boy is about Eric Weiss (Adam Arkin), a writer who has finally hit the big time after years of hard work, with a best-selling novel primed for a Hollywood adaptation.  But has success changed him?  And does where we're from affect who we become? 

Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies (Dinner With Friends, Collected Stories) and Tony Award-winner Daniel Sullivan most recently collaborated on Manhattan Theatre Club's acclaimed production of Sight Unseen earlier this season. 

The creative team for Brooklyn Boy includes Ralph Funicello (sets), Jess Goldstein (costumes), Chris Parry (lighting) and Michael Roth (music and sound).

The production opens Thursday, February 3rd on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre (261 West 47th Street).  Previews begin Thursday, January 13th.

Visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com for more information.

Tickets ($79 - $26) for Brooklyn Boy are available by calling TeleCharge.com at 212-239-6200 or at www.telecharge.com or at the Biltmore Theatre box office (261 West 47th Street).

Brooklyn Boy was commissioned by South Coast Repertory.


BIOGRAPHIES:

DONALD MARGULIES (Playwright) was awarded the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner With Friends, which also won the Outer Critics', Lucille Lortel, and Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner awards and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award. His other plays include God of Vengeance (based on Sholem Asch's 1906 Yiddish classic; A Contemporary Theatre, Seattle); Collected Stories (HB Studio/Lucille Lortel Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle Award, L.A. Ovation Award, Drama Desk nominee, Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner finalist, Pulitzer Prize finalist); The Model Apartment (Primary Stages, Obie Award, Drama Desk nominee, Hull-Warriner finalist); Sight Unseen(MTC/Orpheum Theatre, SCR, Obie and Hull-Warriner Awards, Drama Desk nominee, Pulitzer Prize finalist); The Loman Family Picnic (MTC, Drama Desk nominee); What's Wrong With This Picture? (MTC, Jewish Rep, Brooks Atkinson Theatre); Found a Peanut (New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre); Broken Sleep: Three Plays (Williamstown Theatre Festival); July 7, 1994 (Actors Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival); Pitching to the Star(West Bank Cafe). He received the 2000 Sidney Kingsley Award for outstanding achievement in the theatre by a playwright. Grants: CAPS, New York Foundation of the Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts. Instructor, Yale University. Council member, Dramatists Guild of America.

Daniel Sullivan (Director) has directed in theatres both nationally and abroad. He was also recently represented on Broadway by The Retreat from Moscow, I'm Not Rappaport starring Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen, and Proof Morning's At Seven, Major Barbara, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Heidi Chronicles, Conversations With My Father, I'm Not Rappaport (also London and National tour), and Lincoln Center's Ah! Wilderness, The Sisters Rosensweig, and An American Daughter. Recent off-Broadway credits include In Real Life, Ten Unknowns, Spinning Into Butter, Dinner With Friends (also Geffen Playhouse), Proof, Far East, Psychopathia Sexualis, A Fair Country, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Substance of Fire (also Los Angeles), London Suite.  From 1981 to 1997, Mr. Sullivan served as Artistic Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre, where he directed more than 60 productions including Uncle Vanya, Caucasian Chalk Circle, She Stoops To Conquer, Inspecting Carol, The Mandrake, The Wedding, As You Like It, Major Barbara among many others.  He established Seattle Rep's new play program, developing new works by Jon Robin Baitz, Herb Gardner, A.R. Gurney, Arthur Miller, Wendy Wasserstein, Charlayne Woodard, and William Mastrosimone, among others.  Mr. Sullivan's film and television credits include The Substance of Fire and the PBS presentation of "Far East."  Mr. Sullivan teaches in the theatre department at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and serves as Associate Director at Lincoln Center Theatre.  for which he won a Tony® Award. Other Broadway productions include

Adam Arkin (Eric Weiss) was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role as Dr. Aaron Shutt on "Chicago Hope," in which he starred for six seasons.  He also received Emmy nominations for his roles on "Northern Exposure" and "Frasier".  Recently, he has been seen in recurring roles on "The West Wing" and "Eight Simple Rules".  On stage, Adam received a Tony nomination for his role in the Paul Rudnick comedy, I Hate Hamlet and also starred on Broadway as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls.  Off-Broadway roles include The Extra Man, Sight Unseen and Four Dogs and a Bone at Manhattan Theatre Club, as well as the premiere Encores! production of Fiorello!  Film credits include Hanging Up, The Doctor with William Hurt and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway with Robert Duvall, both for director Randa Haines, as well as Halloween H2O, With Friends Like These, Lake Placid, Under the Rainbow and the upcoming romantic comedy, The Last First Kiss, starring Will Smith and due out in February, 2005.  Arkin has directed episodes of "Chicago Hope," "Northern Exposure," "Ally McBeal" and "Monk".  Recently, he won an Emmy Award for directing My Louisiana Sky, a Showtime film starring Julliette Lewis and Kelsey Keel. 

Polly Draper (Nina) received her master's degree from the Yale School of Drama. She has performed in numerous plays on and Off-Broadway, most recently in Closer on Broadway and Trudy Blue at MCC. Other New York theatre credits include Imagining Brad (Drama Dept.), Four Dogs and a Bone (MTC, New York Magazine's pick as Best Broadway Actress of the Season), John Cassavettes' Thornhill, Neil Simon's Actors and Actresses, Crazy He Calls Me (Broadway), Top Girls, Rum and Coke (The Public Theater), Sister Mary Ignatius, Ground Zero Club (Playwrights Horizons), Split (Second Stage), Hooters, Insignificance (Hudson Guild), The Freak, Mr and Mrs (WPA). Of her many television credits, she is best known as one of the stars of the hit series "thirtysomething," for which she received an Emmy nomination. Other television credits include recurring roles on "Gideons Crossing (ABC)," "The Larry Sanders Show," and "Not Necessarily the News," (HBO). TV movies: "Heartbeat," "The Innocent," (NBC); "Homesong," "Broken Promises," (CBS). Film credits: Making Mr Right, The Pickup Artist, A Million to Juan, Golddiggers, Schemes, Hudson River Blues, Eighteen Shades of Dust and Dinner Rush. The Tic Code, which she also wrote and produced, opened to wide critical acclaim and was one of the most honored films at festivals internationally.

Ari Graynor (Alison) is making her Broadway debut with Brooklyn Boy.  She was last seen on the New York stage in the Second Stage production of Spanish Girl, directed by Erica Schmidt.  Previous theatre credits include the world premiere of Fall by Bridget Carpenter and Into the Woods, directed by Oskar Eustis (both at Trinity Repertory Company) and Ah, Wilderness! at the Huntington Theatre Company, directed by Kyle Donnelly.  On television, she is best known for her role as Meadow Soprano's troubled college roommate, Caitlin, on "The Sopranos" and her guest star role on "Law and Order: SVU".  Clint Eastwood cast Ms. Graynor in her first film role in Mystic River, which was followed by the films Book of Love with Bryce Howard and Gregory Smith (Sundance Dramatic Competition, 2004) and Bereft, directed by Tim Daly (Tribeca Film Festival, 2004).  She can also be seen in the upcoming films, The Great New Wonderful, directed by Danny Leiner with Maggie Gylenhaal and Michael Hoffman's Game Six, opposite Michael Keaton and Robert Downey Jr.

Arye Gross (Ira Zimmer) was seen most recently in M. Butterfly at East West Players and the world premiere of Chekhov x 4 with the Antaeus Company, where he is a member.  Other theatre credits include David Henry Hwang's The Silver River (world premiere) at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; The Square for Mark Taper Forum/ATW; Room Service at the Pasadena Playhouse; Three Sisters at LATC; The Rose of the Rancho and Bandido! for El Teatro Campesino; Chicago Conspiracy Trial, Portage to San Cristobal of A.H., Love Suicide at Sheffield Barracks, and Black Box with the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and La Bete and Sleep… at Stages Theatre Center, where from 2000 to 2003 he served as Artistic Director.  He is heard with some frequency on NPR and Public Radio International in dozens of radio dramas and as the host of PRI's Jewish Holy Days series.  Films include Minority Report, Big Eden, Gone in 60 Seconds, A Midnight Clear, Mother Night, The Opposite Sex, For the Boys, Coupe De Ville, Tequila Sunrise and Soul Man.  Notable TV guest appearances include "Friends," "ER," "The West Wing," "CSI," "The Guardian," and "The X Files," among others.  A series regular on the ABC sitcom "Ellen" and CBS's short lived "Citizen Barnes," Mr. Gorss has recurring roles on "Judging Amy," "The Practice," and "Six Feet Under" (Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series).

Kevin Isola (Tyler Shaw) is making his Broadway debut in Brooklyn Boy. Off-Broadway: Trust at The Kirk Theatre; The World Over and The Water Children (Playwrights Horizons); Twelfth Night, Wasp and Other Plays, Venus (all for Public Theater/NYSF); Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center); The New Bozena (The Cherry Lane). Regional: Yale Rep. Film/Television: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Uninvited, 24 Nights, The New Yorker, Academy Boyz, Hallmark Hall of Fame's "The Summer of Ben Tyler," "Law & Order," "Viva Variety." Training: M.F.A., NYU graduate acting program.

Mimi Lieber (Melanie Fine). Broadway: I'm Not Rappaport.  Other theatre: Leon, Lena and Lenz (Guthrie Theater), Figaro Gets a Divorce (La Jolla Playhouse), The Heidi Chronicles directed by Daniel Sullivan (national tour). Regional: Ford's Theater, Kennedy Center, Paper Mill. L.A.: 20-year member of Odyssey Theater Ensemble, numerous plays include The Greeks, Love Council, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Ron Harwood's Taking Sides, Alan Ball's Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Elizabeth Swados' Lullabye and Goodnight. Also in L.A., Michael Weller's Help; Los Angeles Theater Center; Taper, Too; L.A. Shakespeare. With Ensemble Studio Theater, the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival (Grand Jury Prize, Best of Fest). Film: Bulworth; Corrina, Corrina; Wilder Napalm; Ghost in the Machine; White of the Eye; Grease!; March. On TV: "NYPD Blue," "The Practice," "Friends," "ER," "Seinfeld," "Judging Amy" (recurring), "X-Files," "Dave's World" (recurring), "Wiseguy" (recurring), "Early Edition" (recurring), "Drew Carey" and more.

Allan Miller (Manny Weiss) has acted in more than 200 films and television productions and dozens of plays.  For ten years, he was the artistic director of Back Alley Theatre, where he co-produced or directed over 30 productions, including the world premiere of his own play, The Fox, for which he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.  The theatre also introduced Donald Margulies to the West Coast with two of his plays: Found a Peanut and What's Wrong with this Picture?  Most recently, he directed First Love by Charles Mee at the Odyssey Theatre and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee for the Actors Studio Theatre.  He teaches acting privately, as well as at the Actors Studio, and has taught at several universities, including the Yale School of Drama.  He is the author of A Passion for Acting and has created the videotape, The Craft of Acting: Auditioning.



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