Kate Burton, Boyd Gaines & More Open THE GRAND MANNER at Lincoln Center, 6/24

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop, Artistic Director, and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer) will open A. R. Gurney's new play, THE GRAND MANNER starring Kate Burton, Boyd Gaines, Bobby Steggert and Brenda Wehle. The production, directed by Mark Lamos, began previews Tuesday, June 1 and opens on Thursday, June 24 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 W. 65 Street).

In 1948 playwright A.R. Gurney, then a young boarding school student, traveled to New York where he attended a performance of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, going backstage afterwards to meet the production's star, the great stage actress Katharine Cornell, who was dubbed "The First Lady of the American Stage" by the legendary critic Alexander Woollcott. A mix of remembrance and imagination, THE GRAND MANNER is a love letter to this fabled actress and a heartfelt look back at the glorious heyday of the Broadway theater.

Kate Burton will portray Katherine Cornell with Boyd Gaines as her husband, director Guthrie Mcclintic, and Brenda Wehle as her general manager and confidant, Gert Macy. Bobby Steggert will portray Pete, playwright Gurney's fictional self.

THE GRAND MANNER will have sets by John Arnone, costumes by Ann Hould-Ward, lighting by Russell H. Champa and original music and sound by John Gromada.

Playwright A.R. Gurney's many plays include Far East, Ancestral Voices and Big Bill, all produced by Lincoln Center Theater. Director Mark Lamos returns to Lincoln Center Theater where he directed Gurney's Big Bill as well as such past LCT productions as Shakespeare's Cymbeline and Measure for Measure, Sheridan's The Rivals and Edward Albee's Seascape.

Lincoln Center Theater is currently celebrating its 25th year with a season consisting entirely of new work. This fall LCT presented the New York and world premieres of Nathan Louis Jackson's Broke-ology, directed by Thomas Kail, Sarah Ruhl's In The Next Room or the vibrator play, directed by Les Waters, and Anne Marie Healy's What Once We Felt, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. This spring, LCT is producing the American premiere of Andrew Bovell's When The Rain Stops Falling, directed by David Cromer through April 18 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater and the LCT3 productions of Graceland a new play by Ellen Fairey, directed by Henry Wishcamper (May 3 - May 29), and On The Levee a play with music, conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet, play by Marcus Gardley and music and lyrics by Todd Almond (June 14 - July 10). LCT's Tony Award winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, directed by Bartlett Sher, continues its record-breaking run in the Vivian Beaumont Theater through Sunday, August 22.

THE GRAND MANNER will be performed Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturdays at 2pm and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets, priced at $80 and $85, will be available beginning Sunday, May 16 at the Lincoln Center Theater box office (150 West 65 Street) or by visiting telecharge.com or www.lct.org.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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