Lahti, Potts, Smits and Stott to Bicker as Broadway's New GOD OF CARNAGE Leads 11/17

Broadway's hottest comedy, the Tony Award-winning Best Play, GOD OF CARNAGE welcomes Emmy Award-winner Christine Lahti ("Chicago Hope") as ‘Veronica,' Emmy and Golden Globe-nominee Annie Potts ("Designing Women") as ‘Annette,' Emmy and Golden Globe-winner Jimmy Smits ("The West Wing") as ‘Alan,' and Olivier Award-nominee Ken Stott (original cast member of West End productions of God of Carnage and Art) as ‘Michael' to the cast on Tuesday, November 17. GOD OF CARNAGE plays at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street). 

After receiving rave reviews in London, GOD OF CARNAGE opened on Broadway March 22, 2009 to unanimous praise.

Ken Stott created the role of ‘Michael' in the London premiere of the play. Ken Stott is appearing with the support of Actors' Equity Association. The producers gratefully acknowledge Actors' Equity Association for its assistance of this production.

The Yasmina Reza comedy won the Tony Award for Best Play and Best Direction of a Play (Matthew Warchus). GOD OF CARNAGE also won the 2009 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

GOD OF CARNAGE is a comedy of manners without the manners. The play deals with the aftermath of a playground altercation between two boys and what happens when their parents meet to talk about it.

GOD OF CARNAGE reunites the creative team that staged the Tony Award-winning Best Play, Art. Designed by Mark Thompson (sets and costumes), with lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker & Chris Cronin, the play has music by Gary Yershon.

Tickets are available through Telecharge.com, by phone at 212-239-6200, or 800-432-7250, online at www.Telecharge.com or in person at the Jacobs Theatre box office, 242 West 45th Street. Box office hours are Monday through Saturday 10:00am - 8:00pm.

Christine Lahti (Veronica) earned her first Oscar nomination in 1985's Swing Shift then won an Oscar 10 years later as a first-time director for her short film Lieberman in Love. In 1998, after multiple nominations, Lahti won both the Emmy and her second Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Dr. Kathryn Austin on "Chicago Hope." Three years later her feature film directorial debut My First Mister opened the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Lahti currently stars in four episodes of the new season of "Law & Order: SVU." Other projects have included Smart People, Yonkers Joe, and upcoming Obsessed. Lahti starred in the West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wendy Wasserstein's final play, Third, at the Geffen Playhouse. The play marked her third collaboration with the late playwright - the first being The Heidi Chronicles on Broadway in 1989 and "An American Daughter" for Lifetime in 2000. Film credits include Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty (1998 LA Film Critics Award, Golden Globe nomination), Leaving Normal, The Doctor, Bill Forsyth's Housekeeping, Whose Life is it Anyway? and ...and Justice for All. Television credits include "Jack & Bobby," (SAG, Golden Globe nominations), "Amerika," (Emmy and Golden Globe nominations), "Out of the Ashes," "The Pilot's Wife," "Open House," and "The Book of Ruth." Lahti starred in Three Hotels at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. This presentation was a reprisal of her successful run in the play, which premiered at New York's Circle Rep Theater. She received a Drama Desk nomination for her role. Additional theatre credits include, Jules Feiffer's Little Murders, (Obie Award). Michael Weller's Loose Ends, Noel Coward's Present Laughter, John Guare's Landscape of the Body, Clifford Odet's The Country Girl, David Mamet's The Woods (Theater World Award), Ted Tally's Hooters and Steve Tisch's Division Street.

Annie Potts (Annette) is making her Broadway debut in God of Carnage. She is well known for her role as Mary Jo Shively in the popular television series "Designing Women," as well as for her films Ghostbusters, Toy Story, Pretty in Pink and Texasville. Ms. Potts received two SAG Award nominations for Outstanding Female Actor in the Lifetime Television series "Any Day Now," an Emmy nomination for "Love and War," a Golden Globe nomination for Corvette Summer and a Genie Award for "Heartaches." Her other TV appearances include "Two and a Half Men," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Boston Legal," "Ugly Betty," "Men in Trees," "Joan of Arcadia" and "Huff." She appeared Off-Broadway in "The Vagina Monologues."

Jimmy Smits (Alan). Theatre credits include the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Anna in The Tropics by Nilo Cruz at the Royale Theatre in 2003; the New York Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing in the summer of 2004, as well as Twelfth Night in the summer of '02. Also for the Public Theater, he has appeared in Hamlet, directed by Joseph Papp, and Michael Weller's The Ballad of Soapy Smith, directed by Robert Egan. Other off-Broadway appearances include Ariano, directed by George C. Wolfe; the American Place/Playwrights Horizon co-production of Buck, by Ronald Ribman; and for the Woman's Project at The American Place Theatre, he appeared opposite Linda Hunt in Little Victories. He appeared in many staged readings and workshop productions at New Dramatists, INTAR and The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Regionally, he has been guest artist at The Colorado Shakespeare Festival's production of Othello. He appeared at the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York, in productions of Loose Ends, The Rainmaker and Gemini; at the Center Stage, Baltimore, in Eric Overmyer's Native Speech; and in the West Coast premiere of Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, directed by Robert Egan at the Mark Taper Forum. Mr. Smits is a graduate of Brooklyn College's Center for the Performing Arts, CUNY and holds an MFA from Cornell University's Theatre Arts Program. Smits' can be seen in the upcoming independent films Mother and Child, opposite Annette Bening and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, and Backyard, directed by Carlos Carrera, which is Mexico's official Oscar submission for Foreign Film. His recent film work includes Robin Swicord's The Jane Austen Book Club, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. His performance in My Family, Mi Familia earned him an IFP Spirit Award nomination. Other film credits include Price of Glory, Running Scared, The Believers, Old Gringo, Vital Signs, and Switch. Smits television credits include the four-part PBS documentary series Latin Music USA, which he narrates and an Emmy-nominated guest starring role in Season 3 of Showtime's Dexter, preceded by his portrayal of Presidential candidate Matt Santos in The West Wing. He received six consecutive Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Victor Sifuentes on L.A. Law, winning the Emmy in 1990, and five Emmy nominations for his role as Bobby Simone on NYPD Blue, for which he received a Golden Globe award, two additional nominations and four SAG Award nominations. Other television credits include the Showtime movies Solomon and Sheba and Marshall Law, the ABC miniseries Steven King's The Tommyknockers, the award-winning ABC movie The Broken Cord, Glitz, Dangerous Affection and The Cisco Kid for TNT.

Ken Stott (Michael) is a four time Olivier-nominated actor. He originated the role of Michael in the London premiere of God of Carnage opposite Tamsin Greig, Janet McTeer and Ralph Fiennes. Ken Starred with Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay in the original cast of the hugely successful Art by Yasmina Reza, adapted by Christopher Hampton and directed by Matthew Warchus. More recently, Ken has completed a successful West End run as Eddie Carbone in A View From A Bridge, as well as staring in many National Theatre of Great Britain productions such as The Magistrate, The Recruiting Officer, The Prince's Play and Arthur Miller's Broken Glass. Ken's other theatre credits include Henry IV Part 1 and 2 (RSC), Colquhoun and MacBryde (Royal Court), Heroes (Wyndham's) and The Faith Healer (Almeida). Film credits include Charlie Wilson's War, Girl In A Café, Casanova, The Mighty Celt and King Arthur. Television credits include Hancock and Joan, The Vice (both of which Ken was BAFTA nominated for), Rebus, Messiah I to IV and Uncle Adolf.