Lucille Lortel News

Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® Award winner David Strathairn (Dr. Austin Sloper) will join Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain (Catherine Sloper) in the Tony Award®-winning play The Heiress. Written by Ruth Goetz & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award® nominated playwright and director Moisés Kaufman and will open in the Fall of 2012 at a theatre to be announced.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION, the runaway hit play by Mark St. Germain now in its second successful year in New York, is coming "for a session" at the Mercury Theater (3745 N. Southport, Chicago), making its Midwest Premiere previewing March 21, opening March 26 at 7:30pm and running through June 3. FREUD'S LAST SESSION won the 2011 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play.

Tonight, March 14, WIT director Lynne Meadow and Tony and Emmy Award winner Cynthia Nixon will appear on "The Charlie Rose Show." Meadow and Nixon will speak with Rose about the production currently playing at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) through Saturday evening, March 17 only.

Blessed Unrest (Jessica Burr, Artistic Director) presents Aleksandr Ostrovsky's The Storm April 13 through May 7, 2012 at the Interart Theatre (500 West 52nd Street). Jessica Burr, the 2011 recipient of the League of Professional Theatre Women's Lucille Lortel Award, will direct from a new translation and adaptation by Laura Wickens.

New York's hit play FREUD'S LAST SESSION is set to begin performances tomorrow, March 15th at The Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis for a limited engagement through April 15th. The Indianapolis debut of FREUD'S LAST SESSION stars Scot Greenwell as C. S. Lewis and Gordon McCall as Sigmund Freud. Winner of the 2011 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play, FREUD'S LAST SESSION is currently in its second smash year at NYC's New World Stages (340 West 50th Street), starring Mark H. Dold and Martin Rayner, directed by Tyler Marchant.

The Whidbey Island Center for the Arts Theater Series will present DOUBT, A PARABLE, by John Patrick Shanley, April 6-21, 2012 at 7:30 pm, directed by Andrew Grenier, director of GOD OF CARNAGE at WICA in 2011.

Manhattan Theatre Club's acclaimed production of WIT the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Margaret Edson, directed by Lynne Meadow will end its extended engagement at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) following the Saturday, March 17 evening performance. When it closes, WIT will have played 60 regular performances and 24 preview performances.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Patrick Willingham) will present the return of GATZ, the theatrical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, this spring for a limited seven-week engagement.

Two-time Golden Globe® winner, Academy Award® & Tony Award® nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Toronto in the National Tour of Matthew Lombardo's play HIGH, May 8-13, 2012 at The Royal Alexandra Theatre. Directed by Rob Ruggiero, HIGH also features Evan Jonigkeit as "Cody Randall" and Timothy Altmeyer as "Father Michael Delpapp".

There are only three performances remaining to catch the original cast of FREUD'S LAST SESSION before they head to Chicago to star in the Midwest premiere of Mark St. Germain's smash hit play. Mark H. Dold and Martin Rayner opened in the Off-Broadway production of FREUD'S LAST SESSION on July 22, 2010 to rave reviews, immediately becoming a sellout sensation and winning the 2011 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play. Dold and Rayner will depart for Chicago after Thursday's performance and George Morfogen and Jim Stanek will assume the roles of Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis respectively this Friday, March 16th at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). The Chicago production is set to begin performances March 21st at the Mercury Theater.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick, has announced that Greg Reiner will join the acclaimed Off-Broadway theater as its new Executive Director beginning March 19. Reiner comes to CSC after an extremely successful tenure as Executive Director of Tectonic Theater Project, where, among many other achievements, he produced the world premiere of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later in 150 theaters on a single night, and oversaw the Tony nominated Broadway production of 33 Variations. Reiner succeeds Jessica R. Jenen, who departed CSC in the fall.

Moonbox Productions presents Floyd Collins; based on a true story, with music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, book and additional lyrics by Tina Landau. Directed by Allison Olivia Choat, musical direction by Dan Rodriguez, choreographed by Rachel Bertone. Performances run from April 6-14: Thurs. (7:30 pm), Fri. (8 pm), Sat. (2 pm & 8 pm), & Sun. (2 pm). Tickets: $32-$37. BCA Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont St., Boston. Wheelchair accessible. For advance tickets and information, visit or call the Box Office at 671-933-8600 or log onto www.bostontheatrescene.com.

Walnut Street Theatre's 2011-2012 Independence Studio on 3 season continues with John Patrick Shanley's Tony Award-winning Broadway play, DOUBT - A PARABLE. Directed by John Peakes, the production begins with previews on March 27th, opens March 29th and continues through April 15th in the Walnut's Independence Studio on 3.

York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director), celebrating the legendary librettist and lyricist Tom Jones with Musicals in Mufti: The Tom Jones Festival, has announced that Graham Rowat (Guys and Dolls) will join previously announced Tom Jones (The Fantasticks), Stephanie Umoh (Ragtime, York's Falling for Eve) and Susan Watson (Follies) in the series opener, The Show Goes On, a portfolio of theater songs by Mr. Jones and his longtime collaborator Harvey Schmidt directed by Pamela Hunt.

Thought of by many as the biggest flop in Broadway history, Carrie opened at the Virginia Theatre on May 12, 1988 only to close three days later. The cult-classic has found a second life at the Lucille Lortel Theatre however, where it opened earlier this month for a new generation of theatre-goers. This brings us to last week's poll-'Which 2012 'Best Picture' Nominee Would You Like to See on Broadway?' And the winner, with 40% of the vote was The Help!

Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award winner Julianna Margulies will be the guest of honor at the third annual Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS fundraising luncheon on Monday, March 12, 2012 at Noon at The Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St. Ms. Margulies, who currently stars in the hit CBS drama The Good Wife, will be interviewed about her stage, television and film career by Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey in a format similar to Inside the Actors Studio.

Steppenwolf has just announced that Emmy®, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award® winner Julianna Margulies will be the guest of honor at the third annual Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS fundraising luncheon on Monday, March 12, 2012 at Noon at The Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St. Ms. Margulies, who currently stars in the hit CBS drama The Good Wife, will be interviewed about her stage, television and film career by Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey in a format similar to Inside the Actors Studio. Previous honorees at Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS include ensemble members Joan Allen and Martha Plimpton.