Players Guild of Leonia Announces Casting for DEATHTRAP

Players Guild of Leonia, founded in 1919, has announced the creative team and cast of their first show of 2024 – the comedy thriller DEATHTRAP.

DEATHTRAP will be performed at the Civil War Drill Hall Theatre (130 Grand Avenue, Leonia) over three weekends from January 19th to February 4th, 2024. Performances are 8:00pm Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:00pm on Sundays.

Ira Levin's DEATHTRAP was the longest running comedy-thriller in Broadway history, nominated for four TONY Awards, including Best Play. DEATHTRAP has been delighting audiences at home and abroad for decades and was lauded by the New York Times as “an absolute knockout of a suspense melodrama.” With plot twists aplenty, DEATHTRAP tells the story of a has-been playwright, Sidney Bruhl, who is desperate to regain his prestige, and his young protégé, Clifford Anderson, who unwittingly offers an intriguing solution. How desperate remains a secret, and to tell you any more would be a crime!

DEATHTRAP is directed by Chris Hietikko, stage managed by Jeff Parsons, and produced by Kim Queren and Ralph Martinez. The creative team includes Edward Pierce as Design Consultant; Costume Design by Pixie Pierce; Fight Choreography by Paul White; Dialect Coaching by Jeff Woodman; Sound Design by Chris Thorn. Jabari Ryland is Assistant to the Director and John Westling is Assistant Stage Manager.

Director Hietikko said “I have wanted to direct this play for years and am thrilled to be tackling it with this amazing cast and creative team. It is exciting that this material from the late 1970s remains so fresh, funny, and shocking today. I know the Players Guild of Leonia audiences will thoroughly enjoy this production, including the unique way in which we have redesigned the Civil War Drill Hall theater for DEATHTRAP.”

DEATHTRAP stars Andrew Blais as playwright Sidney Bruhl; Jodi Reiss as his wife Myra; Nikolas Elrifi as Clifford Anderson; Jessi Baden-Campbell as psychic Helga ten Dorp; and T.S. Murphy as attorney Porter Milgram.

Tickets are now available. Click the purchase link below or visit our website at: www.leoniaplayers.org. Reserved seating tickets are $25, $22 for Seniors and Students.