Houdyshell Is 'CORALINE' for MCC, Previews Begin 5/7

The New York Times is reporting that, MCC Theater has announced a bit of unconventional casting news for its stage adaptation of the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman.

Jayne Houdyshell, 55, who was nominated for a Tony award for her performance in "Well," will play the 9-year-old Coraline according to the Times' Arts, Briefly column.

The character of Coraline wishes for a better a life and as press materials describe, "finds a parallel universe that holds great promise (until she gets to know her new parents). Poor bored Coraline. She's left to rattle 'round her perpetually distracted, workaholic parents' house all by her lonesome. But late one night, her dreams of a better reality come true as she opens a big, carved, wooden door at the far end of the drawing room and passes into a perfect replica of her own world. When she's greeted there by a vastly loving Other Mother and a kindly Other Father, she's thrilled! But as the rats start to creep from the floorboards, and the way home becomes increasingly unclear, Coraline begins to suspect that, perhaps, all is not as perfect as it seems...

A musical like no other, Coraline sprang from the minds of three of the most wildly popular cult figures of our time. Adapted from the terrifying children's book by Neil Gaiman (author of the international sensation Sandman), this tale of menace and mayhem is set to music and lyrics by smart-rock iconoclast Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, and boasts a book by celebrated downtown actor/playwright, David Greenspan, who serves double-duty as the villianous Other Mother. Bringing it all together is acclaimed director Leigh Silverman (Yellowface, From Up Here, Well).

Jayne Houdyshell is currently starring in WICKED as the vile Madame Morrible.  She was seen this past season in the Paul Rudnick comedy The New Century at Lincoln Center Theatre and was recently seen in Adam Bock's off-Broadway comedy The Receptionist (opposite Ms. Kassebaum). She appeared on Broadway in Well, for which she received a 2006 Tony nomination, Theatre World Award, and AEA Richard Seff Award. Off-Broadway credits include Well, Public Theater (2004 Obie Award and Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel Award nominations); The Pain and the Itch at Playwrights Horizons; Much Ado About Nothing at NYSF; Fighting Words with Underwood; True Love at Zipper Theatre; Attempts on Her Life at Soho Rep. Regional: The Pain and the Itch, Steppenwolf Theatre (2005 Jefferson Award); The Clean House, Wilma Theater (2005 Barrymore Award); McCarter Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Geva, Syracuse Stage and many others. Film: Garden State, Changing Lanes, Trust the Man, Things That Hang From Trees. Television: "Conviction," "Law & Order," "Third Watch."

MCC Theater was founded in 1986 as Manhattan Class Company, then a collective of young actors, writers and directors eager to take a leadership role in their own artistic development. Initial peer-based "classes" led to showcases and eventually to the kinds of full-scale productions that have made MCC Theater one of New York's leading off-Broadway theater companies.

For more information visit, www.mcctheatre.org.