John Gallagher, Jr. Joins Cast of Atlantic's 'Farragut North'

It has been confirmed that actor John Gallagher, Jr. will be joining the cast of Atlantic Theater Company's upcoming production of FARRAGUT NORTH in the lead role of Stephen.

Atlantic welcomes young playwright Beau Willimon and Tony Award® winning director Doug Hughes with the World Premiere production of FARRAGUT NORTH. Stephen is a wunderkind press secretary who has built a career that men twice his age would envy.  During a tight presidential primary race, however, Stephen's meteoric rise falls prey to the backroom politics of more seasoned operatives, and his one night stand with a teenage staffer proves to be more complicated than casual.  Farragut North is a classic tale of hubris set against a contemporary landscape – about the lust for power and the costs one will endure to achieve it. 

John Gallagher, Jr. won a 2007 Tony Award for his performance as Mortiz in the Broadway hit musical Spring Awakening. He recently starred in the Atlantic Theater Company's production of Port Authority.

Beau Willimon (Playwright) has written eight full-length plays as well as numerous one-acts.  His work has been developed or performed at MCC, Cherry Lane, HERE Arts Center, New Dramatists, Daryl Roth 2, the Dayton Playhouse (Ohio), The Donmar Warehouse (London) and the Battersea Arts Center (London).  Willimon is the recipient of the the Lila Acheson Wallace Juilliard Playwriting Fellowship, a Donmar Warehouse playwriting residency, the Seymour Brick Memorial Playwriting Prize, the Yale/Norfolk Arts Fellowship, the Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship, winner of the 2005 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest, and two-time winner of the Lincoln Center Le Compte du Nouy Award.  His play, Lower Ninth, received its world premiere production at The Flea Theater earlier this year after initially being staged as part of Arielle Tepper's 2007 Summer Play Festival.  He is currently working on a commission for MTC Theatre.  In addition to his work for the stage, Willimon is working on two films for Warner Brothers: the feature film adaptation of his play Farragut North and an adaptation of Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities.  He is also writing film adaptation of Peter Morgan's mini-series The Jury for Fox 2000.  Willimon holds an M.F.A. in playwriting from Columbia University's School of the Arts.  He lives in Brooklyn.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing Director) is the award winning Off-Broadway theater dedicated to producing great plays simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of the play and the intent of the playwright are at the core of the creative process. Atlantic’s acclaimed world premiere production of its first musical Spring Awakening, with music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater and direction by Michael Mayer, won 8 Tony Awards®, including Best Musical. In 2006, Atlantic was awarded the Lucille Lortel Prize for Outstanding Body of Work and its lauded production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, directed by Wilson Milam, transferred to the Lyceum Theatre, where it was nominated for five 2006 Tony Awards® including Best Play.

Atlantic has produced five world premiere productions this season, Academy Award® winning film maker Ethan Coen’s comedy Almost an Evening, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Academy Award® winner F. Murray Abraham and Mark Linn-Baker; Peter Parnell’s Trumpery, directed by David Esbjornson and featuring Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award® winner Michael Cristofer and Tony Award® nominee Manoel Felciano; Lucy Thurber’s Scarcity, directed by Jackson Gay and featuring Emmy Award® winner Kristen Johnston, Jesse Eisenberg and Michael T. Weiss, Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Chris Bauer, Jonathan Cake and Emily Mortimer and Annie Baker’s Body Awareness, directed by Karen Kohlhaas and featuring Academy Award® nominee JoBeth Williams, Peter Friedman and Mary McCann.

The critically acclaimed New York premiere production of Oliver Award® winning and Tony Award® nominated playwright Conor McPherson’s play Port Authority, directed by Henry Wishcamper and featuring Tony Award® nominee Brian d’Arcy James (Sweet Smell of Success), Tony Award® winner John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening) and Tony Award® winner Jim Norton (The Seafarer) is now playing an extended engagement through June 22nd, 2008.

Last season, founder David Mamet’s smash hit adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, directed by David Warren and starring Michael Stuhlbarg and Fritz Weaver, was extended an unprecedented three times, the first time in Atlantic’s history. The world premiere production of Atlantic’s second musical 10 Million Miles, featuring music and lyrics by Grammy Award® nominated singer/songwriter Patty Griffin, a book by Keith Bunin and direction by Tony Award® winner Michael Mayer also played an extended limited engagement.

Since it’s inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 100 plays including the Tony Award® winning production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the world premieres of Woody Allen’s A Second Hand Memory and Writer’s Block, the acclaimed world premiere of David Mamet’s Romance, Jez Butterworth’s Mojo, Tom Donaghy’s Minutes From The Blue Route, Edwin Sanchez’ Trafficking in Broken Hearts and the American premieres of Blue/Orange, Dublin Carol and The Night Heron, the New York premieres of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and The Cider House Rules, the revivals of American Buffalo, Edmond, The Hothouse and Hobson’s Choice.  Atlantic maintains an ensemble of acclaimed actors, writers and directors including David Mamet (playwright and director) and William H. Macy (Academy Award® nominee for Fargo), who founded Atlantic over twenty years ago in 1985.

For more information please visit atlantictheater.org

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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