Holland Taylor, Rachel Dratch & Glenn Fitzgerald Join Cast of MTC's RIPCORD

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) just announced Rachel Dratch (Love's Labour's Lost, "Saturday Night Live"), Glenn Fitzgerald (Hamlet, The Sixth Sense), and Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Holland Taylor (Ann, "Two and a Half Men") will join Drama Desk Award winner Marylouise Burke in the cast of Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Ripcord, the new comedy by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce.

Taylor replaces the previously announced Mary Louise Wilson who was forced to withdraw from the production due to the extension of her book tour for her new memoir.

Ripcord will mark Dratch's Manhattan Theatre Club debut. She's most recently appeared in the Off-Broadway production of Tail! Spin! and Alex Timbers' and Michael Friedman's musical version of Love's Labour's Lost at the Delacorte Theatre. She memorably appeared in seven seasons of "Saturday Night Live" and is the author of the memoir Girl Walks Into A Bar.

Fitzgerald recently appeared in Hamlet with Peter Sarsgaard and Ivanov with Ethan Hawke. He also appeared in the David Hyde Pierce directed production of The Importance of Being Earnest at Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Taylor returns to New York theatre having recently ended an acclaimed run on the beloved series "Two and a Half Men" for which she received four Emmy nominations. She most recently starred on Broadway in Ann, a one woman show she also wrote and for which she received Tony and Drama Desk nominations.

Ripcord will begin previews Tuesday, September 29 for a Tuesday, October 20 opening night at Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).

David Lindsay-Abaire, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Rabbit Hole, Fuddy Meers, and Good People, returns to MTC withRipcord, a high-stakes comedy about two women of a certain age locked in a no-holds-barred battle to the death, directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce.

A sunny room on an upper floor is prime real estate in the Bristol Place Assisted Living Facility so when the cantankerous Abby (Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Holland Taylor) is forced to share her quarters with new-arrival Marilyn (frequent Lindsay-Abaire collaborator and Drama Desk Award winner Marylouise Burke), she has no choice but to get rid of the infuriatingly chipper woman by any means necessary. A seemingly harmless bet between the old women quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upmanship that reveals not just the tenacity of these worthy opponents, but also deeper truths that each would rather remain hidden. As heartfelt as it is deliciously inappropriate, this hilarious world premiere marks the author's sixth collaboration with MTC.

Ripcord was commissioned by MTC through the Bank of America New American Play Program.

The creative team for Ripcord includes Alexander Dodge (scenic design), Peter Kaczorowski (lighting design), Jennifer von Mayrhauser (costume design), John Gromada (original music and sound design), and Thomas Schall (fight director).

Additional casting for Ripcord will be announced shortly.

MTC's 2015-2016 Broadway season will feature the Broadway premiere of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, starring Nina Ariandaand Sam Rockwell, directed by Daniel Aukin, presented in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival; the New York premiere of Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair, starring Linda Lavin, directed by Lynne Meadow. The 2015-2016 Off-Broadway season will include the world premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire's Ripcord, starring Marylouise Burke, Rachel Dratch, Glenn Fitzgerald, and Holland Taylor, directed by David Hyde Pierce; the world premiere of Prodigal Son, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley; the American premiere of Nick Payne's Incognito, directed by Doug Hughes; and the world premiere of Nick Jones' Important Hats of the Twentieth Century, directed by Moritz Von Stuelpnagel.

Manhattan Theatre Club, under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past four and a half decades, MTC productions have earned numerous awards including six Pulitzer Prizes and 19 Tony Awards. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and two Off-Broadway theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55thStreet). Renowned MTC productions include Constellations; Casa Valentina; Outside Mullingar; The Assembled Parties; Venus in Fur; Master Class; Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; Come Back, Little Sheba;Blackbird; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin.' For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos