Previews begin Thursday (October 22) at the Lyceum Theater (149 West 45 Street) for Lincoln Center Theater's production of IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play, a new play by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Les Waters. The cast features Laura Benanti, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Michael Cerveris, Maria Dizzia, Thomas Jay Ryan, Wendy Rich Stetson, and Chandler Williams. Opening night is Thursday, November 19.
IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play, which had its world premiere this past winter at
Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is a comedy about marriage, intimacy and electricity. Set at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat "hysterical" women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife (
Laura Benanti and
Michael Cerveris) and how his new therapy affects their entire household. The production has sets by
Annie Smart, costumes by
David Zinn, lighting by Russell Champa, sound by
Bray Poor and original music by
Jonathan Bell.
Sarah Ruhl returns to
Lincoln Center Theater where she made her New York debut with her play The Clean House. Her other plays include Dead Man's Cell Phone, Demeter in the City, Eurydice, Late: a cowboy song, Melancholy Play, Orlando and Passion Play: a cycle. Her work has also been produced in New York at
Playwrights Horizons and the Second Stage and nationally at many theaters including the Goodman, Yale Rep, the Woolly Mammoth and The Berkeley Rep where In the Next Room premiered earlier this year.
Les Waters, an Obie Award winning director, is the associate artistic director of Berkeley Rep. His New York credits include productions at BAM. the
Manhattan Theatre Club, CSC,
Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, Second Stage Theater and
Signature Theatre Company.
To celebrate its 25th Year,
Lincoln Center Theater will present a season of eight new works, all New York, American or World Premieres. In addition to IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator, LCT's 2009-2010 season includes
Nathan Louis Jackson's BROKE-OLOGY, which is playing at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater through Nov. 22, the American premiere of Andrew Bovell's WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING and the world premiere of
A.R. Gurney's THE GRAND MANNER. In addition, this fall LCT3,
Lincoln Center Theater's new programming initiative devoted to the work of new playwrights, directors and designers will present WHAT ONCE WE FELT, a new play by
Ann Marie Healy, which will be the first of three productions of its second season at The Duke on 42nd Street. LCT's Tony Award-winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC continues it record breaking run at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.
