Gary Cole and Edi Gathegi Take On Geffen's SUPERIOR DONUTS This Summer

Gary Cole and Edi Gathegi lead the cast of the West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts at the Geffen Playhouse. Cole, a Steppenwolf ensemble member who is well-recognized from cult comedy classics such as Office Space and Pineapple Express, plays Arthur Przybyszewski, the proprietor of Superior Donuts, a sweets shop that has been a community hub for decades - and both the neglected storefront and its rundown owner are evidence to that. But things change when Franco, a young fast-talking dreamer played by Edi Gathegi - widely recognized by "TwiHards" around the globe as ‘Vampire Laurent' in the Twilight saga - bounds into the shop, and the writing is on the wall that things are going to change, maybe even for the better. Helmed by Geffen Playhouse artistic director, Randall Arney, Letts' provocative new comedy weaves a heart-warming and humorous tale of unlikely friendships in one of Chicago's most diverse neighborhoods.

"Tracy does such a great job of capturing a microcosm of America in this tiny donut shop," said director Randall Arney, "While this play is quintessentially Chicago, it could be any street corner in America. It resonates so strongly with who we all are as a nation right now - as we slowly morph toward the most perfect version of ourselves and how every friendship, every relationship, brings us a little closer to that."

While the story centers around Cole and Gathegi's characters, there are seven more actors yet to be announced to complete the cast. Superior Donuts had its world premiere in 2008 at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre before moving to New York, and the Geffen Playhouse production marks the play's West Coast premiere. While Arney and Letts are both ensemble members of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, this is the first time a work by Letts, most well-known for his lauded drama August Osage County, has been performed at the Geffen Playhouse.