Brian Murray Joins Cast Of MTC's 'To Be Or Not To Be'

Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer) is pleased to announce that three-time Tony Award nominee and two-time Drama Desk Award winner Brian Murray will join the cast of its upcoming world premiere Broadway production of Nick Whitby's TO BE OR NOT TO BE, based on the 1942 motion picture To Be Or Not To Be.  The production, to be directed by three-time Tony Awardâ nominee Casey Nicholaw (The Drowsy Chaperone, Monty Python's Spamalot), will mark Whitby's New York playwrighting debut.

Murray (The Little Foxes, MTC's A Small Family Business, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) joins the previously announced Craig Bierko (The Music Man, The Long Kiss Goodnight) and Jan Maxwell (Coram Boy, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). The cast will also feature Peter Benson (The Pajama Game), Steve Kazee (Monty Python's Spamalot), Michael McCarty (Mary Poppins), Kristine Nielsen (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, MTC's Our Leading Lady), Brandon Perler (Broadway debut), Rocco Sisto (Iphigenia 2.0), and Marina Squerciati (MTC's Beauty of the Father).

TO BE OR NOT TO BE will be the first production of Manhattan Theatre Club's 2008-2009 season. The production will begin previews at the Biltmore Theatre (261 West 47th Street) on Thursday, September 11 and will open on Thursday, October 2.

At the Polski Theatre in 1939 Warsaw, Josef (Bierko) and Maria Tura (Maxwell) are about to open yet another smash with their theatrical troupe. As the German invasion gets underway, the theatre is closed by the censors, forcing the troupe to face desperate times. But when a handsome young bomber pilot enlists their help to catch a spy, what is a group of actors to do? This hilarious black comedy is an ingenious commentary on the World War II era and an inspired tribute to the timeless joys of the theatre.

Murray will play the role of Dowasz, a member of the Polski Theatre troupe. Two additional principal cast members will be announced in the coming weeks.

The creative team for TO BE OR NOT TO BE will include: Anna Louizos (Scenic Design), Gregg Barnes (Costume Design), Howell Binkley (Lighting Design), Darron L West (Sound Design), Josh Marquette (Hair Design), and David Caparelliotis (Casting).

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. MTC productions have earned a total of 16 Tony Awards and five Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. Renowned MTC productions include Top Girls; From Up Here; Come Back, Little Sheba; The Receptionist; LoveMusik; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Kimberly Akimbo; Love! Valour! Compassion!; Sylvia; Four Dogs and a Bone; Putting It Together; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin'.

In 2003, MTC reopened Broadway's landmark, long-neglected Biltmore Theatre, soon to be renamed the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, following a two-year, $35 million capital campaign. In addition, MTC operates two theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street), its Off-Broadway home since 1984.

During Meadow's sabbatical this season, Daniel Sullivan, a close associate of MTC and director of several Manhattan Theatre Club productions (Rabbit Hole, Brooklyn Boy, Sight Unseen, Proof, Psychopathia Sexualis), has been serving as Acting Artistic Director. Meadow will resume her full duties as artistic director in September and is consulting on the planning of the 2008-2009 season.

You can subscribe to MTC by calling (212) 399-3030, Monday - Friday, noon - 8 PM with a major credit card. Subscriptions will also be available online at www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

Single tickets to TO BE OR NOT TO BE will be available at a later date. Other listings information will be released in the coming weeks.

Brian Murray (Dowasz) Broadway: The Rivals, The Crucible (Tony nomination), Uncle Vanya (Drama Desk nomination), Twelfth Night, The Little Foxes (Drama Desk Award, Tony nomination), Racing Demon, MTC's A Small Family Business (Drama Desk nomination), Noises Off (Drama Desk Award), Black Comedy, Sleuth, Da, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tony nomination). Off Broadway: Gaslight, Colder Than Here, Much Ado About Nothing, Beckett/Albee, Scattergood, Hobson's Choice, The Play About the Baby (Obie Award), Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Entertainer, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Misalliance, Molly Sweeney, Travels with My Aunt (Drama Desk, OCC awards), Mud River Stone, Ashes (Obie), Spread Eagle, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing and The Butterfly Collection. Regional: The world premieres of Edward Albee's Me, Myself, and I and A Seagull In The Hamptons at the McCarter and Alfred Uhry's Edgardo Mine at Hartford Stage and The Guthrie. As director (Broadway): The Circle, Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Show Off, The Waltz of the Toreadors. Film/TV: Bob Roberts, City Hall, Treasure Planet (voice of John Silver) "The Investigation," "Liberty," "Hamlet," "Twelfth Night." Recipient: 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, 1998 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, Fox Foundation Fellow.