Cynthia Nixon Headlines Cast of Roundabout's 'Distracted'

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is proud to announce the New York premiere of Lisa Loomer's Distracted, directed by Mark Brokaw with Cynthia Nixon as "Mama." Distracted will begin performances in February 2009 at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street).  This will be a limited engagement.

Additional cast members, design team and production dates will be announced shortly. 

Distracted is a fast-paced and disarmingly funny look at parenting in the age of the Internet and Ritalin. In this New York premiere, a contemporary American mom reaches out to teachers, psychotherapists, and neighbors to figure out if Attention Deficit Disorder is the root of her son's problems.

Cynthia Nixon returns to Roundabout having last appeared in the 2001 production of The Women at the American Airlines Theatre. She returns to the New York stage after her Tony winning performance in the 2006 production of Rabbit Hole and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Mark Brokaw also returns to the Roundabout and the Laura Pels Theatre after directing the 2006 production of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer with Blythe Danner and Carla Gugino and The Constant Wife at the American Airlines Theatre in 2004.

Distracted had its world premiere in March 2007 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. 

Tickets will be available in Fall 2008 by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre box office (111 West 46 Street).  Distracted will play a limited engagement.

Distracted will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.   

Lisa Loomer (Playwright). Lisa Loomer's plays, including Living Out; The Waiting Room; Expecting Isabel; Broken Hearts; Birds; Bocón!; Looking for Angels; Cuts; Maria!, Maria, Maria, Maria; and Accelerando have been produced at  such theatres as the Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, South Coast Rep, the Kennedy Center, Seattle Rep, Missouri Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Trinity Rep, Theater Works, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and in New York at the Vineyard Theatre, Second Stage, Intar, and the Public.  Her newest play, Distracted, had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum last spring and was subsequently produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  Her work has also been seen in Europe, Mexico, Israel and Egypt.  She's received grants from The NEA and NYFA, is a two-time winner of the American Theatre Critics Award, and has also won the Kennedy Center Award for New Plays, the Jane Chambers Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and an Imagen Award for positive portrayals of Latinos in all media.  Her work is included in The Best Plays of 1994, 1998, and 2003, and is published by Dramatists Play Service.  She is also a screenwriter.

Mark Brokaw (Director). At Roundabout, Brokaw recently directed the Off-Broadway production of Suddenly Last Summer, starring Blythe Danner and Carla Gugino & the Tony® Award nominated revival of The Constant Wife starring Kate Burton and Lynn Redgrave.  Other Broadway:  Cry-Baby the Musical.  Other recent New York revivals include Reckless (Manhattan Theatre Club and Second Stage at the Biltmore) and Baltimore Waltz (Signature Theatre Company). New York premieres include Paula Vogel's The Long Christmas Ride Home and How I Learned to Drive (Vineyard Theatre), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero (Playwrights Horizons and its UK premiere at London's Donmar Warehouse and West End) and This Is Our Youth (New Group and Second Stage), Craig Lucas' The Dying Gaul and Stranger (Vineyard Theatre), Douglas Carter Beane's As Bees in Honey Drown and Music From a Sparkling Planet (Drama Dept.), Wendy Wasserstein's Old Money (Lincoln Center Theater), Lisa Kron's 2.5 Minute Ride (New York Shakespeare Festival) and Lynda Barry's The Good Times Are Killing Me (Second Stage). Regional credits include the new musical Marty with John C. Reilly at the Huntington, A Little Night Music in the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center, as well as work at the Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse and the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. He is an Associate Artist at Roundabout Theatre Company, serves on the executive board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and is a member of Drama Dept.  

Cynthia Nixon (Mama) won a Theater World Award at age fourteen for her stage debut in Ellis Rabb's production of The Philadelphia Story at Lincoln Center and a Tony Award in 2006 for her performance in David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole for Manhattan Theater Club. At age eighteen, while a first-semester freshman at Barnard College, she appeared simultaneously in two Broadway productions: David Rabe's Hurlyburly and Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, both directed by Mike Nichols.  Cynthia's other Broadway credits include Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles, Indiscretions (Tony nomination), The Women (Roundabout), Tony Kushner's Angels in America and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo.  She most recently appeared on the New York stage in Scott Elliott's revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for The New Group.  For her television work, Cynthia has received four Emmy nominations, five Golden Globe nominations and six SAG award nominations for "Sex and the City" and "Warm Springs," having been honored with an Emmy Award, two SAG Awards and a Lucy Award for "Sex and the City."   Her recent film credits include Little Manhattan, One Last Thing and the highly anticipated Sex and the City movie which will be released this Memorial Day.

Roundabout Theatre Company is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres.  The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences. 

Roundabout Theatre Company currently produces at three permanent theatres each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission.  The off Broadway home, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre's Laura Pels Theatre with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays while the grandeur of its Broadway home, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics.  Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions.  Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

Roundabout productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts; and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.  American Express is the 2008-2009 season sponsor of the Roundabout Theatre Company.  American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company.  The Westin New York is the official hotel of Roundabout Theatre Company.    

Productions playing during Roundabout's 2008 spring season include Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George starring Daniel Evans & Jenna Russell, directed by Sam Buntrock; Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Laura Linney & Ben Daniels, directed by Rufus Norris; Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo, directed by Walter Bobbie.  Roundabout's sold out production of The 39 Steps transfers to the Cort Theatre beginning April 29th, 2008.

Roundabout Theatre Company's upcoming 2008-2009 season will also include Rogers & Hart's Pal Joey, directed by Joe Mantello and Bob Fosse's Dancin', directed by Graciela Daniele.

Roundabout Theatre Company's critically acclaimed Broadway production of Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men has extended its multi-award winning touring production for a second year.  Directed by Tony-nominated director Scott Ellis (Curtains) and starring Richard Thomas as "Juror #8," Twelve Angry Men is appearing in numerous cities across the country in Spring 2008 including Hartford, Charlotte, Nashville and Toronto.

www.roundabouttheatre.org  

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.