Christa B. Allen to Join the Cast of NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH Off-Broadway

Christa B. Allen, best known for starring as Charlotte Grayson on ABC's hit drama “Revenge” and as young Jenna Rink in the beloved romantic comedy 13 Going on 30, will star in the upcoming Off-Broadway production of Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th. Allen will play Karen Andre in the limited 12-performance engagement, beginning October 7 at Theatre Five at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, NYC). Opening Night is set for Sunday, October 11, and the production will play through Sunday, October 18.

Allen's career spans more than two decades in film and television. In addition to “Revenge” and 13 Going on 30, she has appeared in a wide range of film and television projects. Beyond the screen, Allen has built an audience of 2.2 million followers across social media platforms, where her work as a content creator focuses on wellness, spirituality and self-reclamation.

Allen joins previously announced Grammy Award-winning Broadway, West End and opera artist Zachary James, who will play attorneyFlint. James most recently originated the role of Hades in the West End production of Hadestown and appeared as Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. On Broadway, he originated the role of Lurch in The Addams Family and appeared in South Pacific and Coram Boy.

Directed by Theo Devaney, Ruth Stage's Night of January 16thradically reimagines Rand's courtroom thriller as a bold, heightened descent into a dark, purgatorial parallel reality. On the night of January 16th, financier Bjorn Faulkner falls from the penthouse of his own skyscraper, and Karen Andre, his former secretary, lover and closest confidante, is accused of his murder. But the question is not only whether Karen killed him. It is whether the depth of her love, loyalty and understanding makes her guilty, or makes her the only person capable of telling the truth about who Bjorn really was.

To Karen, Bjorn was not simply a corrupt tycoon or reckless seducer, but a man of terrifying vitality: brilliant, dangerous, wounded and larger than the world that sought to condemn him. As witnesses attempt to reduce him to scandal, fraud or victim, Karen's memory of Bjorn becomes both her defense and her undoing. She is placed not only on legal trial, but on spiritual and psychological trial, pursued by desire, guilt, memory and threatening forces beyond the visible world.

At every performance, 15 audience members serve as the jury, drawn into the trial and ultimately charged with determining the verdict. Their decision determines which conclusion the company performs that evening, implicating the audience in the central question of the play: what kind of truth do they believe?

“We were fortunate to have a great deal of interest in the role of Karen Andre, but what it ultimately came down to was that Christa gave us exactly what we were looking for in this dark reimagining of the Ayn Rand classic,” said Chairman and Creative Director Matt de Rogatis. “There was an iciness in her read that so completely embodies Karen Andre and the Rand female archetype. Christa also brings tremendous edge and danger to the role that not only fits this production, but the direction our brand, Ruth Stage, continues to move in. She has an aura that I believe audiences will be mesmerized by when she takes the stand, and we sincerely welcome her as our leading lady in Night of January 16th.”

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