Ron Holgate Replaces Tony Roberts in HEROES

Keen Company announced today that Tony Award-winner Ron Holgate (1776, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Grand Hotel, recent revivals of Kiss Me, Kate and Guys and Dolls) will join John Cullum and Jonathan Hogan for its upcoming production of Heroes, replacing previously announced Tony Roberts. Mr. Roberts has withdrawn from the production to attend to family matters. The New York premiere of this 2006 Olivier Award-winning play by Gerald Sibleyras with a translation by Tom Stoppard, will be helmed by Keen Artistic Director Carl Forsman and run from February 24 - April 11 at The Clurman Theatre / Theatre Row ( 410 West 42nd Street ). The official opening is set for March 8.

An evocative comedy about three World War I veterans living in a veterans' home who plot a new assault - a trip to a stand of poplar trees in the distance. But should they bring the stone dog with them? Author Sibleyras calls Heroes a play "about the universal desire to escape the confines of life." Winner of London 's Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2006 and Paris ' Moliere Award for Outstanding Comedy in 2003, Keen presents its New York debut.

Ron Holgate received the Tony Award for his performance as Richard Henry Lee in the original production of 1776. He went on to play the same role in the film version of 1776. Prior to that, he made his Broadway debut in the 1961 production of Milk and Honey and then originated the role of the strapping Miles Gloriosus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Other Broadway credits include the original companies of 1776, Grand Hotel, Lend Me a Tenor and the revivals of Guys & Dolls (1992), Annie Get Your Gun (1999) and Kiss Me, Kate (1999).

The Broadway career of John Cullum spans from the original Camelot to the currant August: Osage County. Two Tony Awards: On The Twentieth Century and Shenandoah. Three Tony Noms.: On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Urinetown and 110 in the Shade. Drama Desk Nom. for SIN: A Cardinal Deposed and The Conscientious Objector. B'way: Cymberline, Old Money, All My Sons, Show Boat, Doubles, 1776, Camelot, Burton 's Hamlet, Boys in Autumn, Trip Back Down, La Mancha. TV: Holling on "Northern Exposure," Mark Greene's father on "ER," "Law & Order-SUV," "Touched by an Angel." Film: ight Listener, Betty Page, Secret Life of Algernon, 1776, Sweet Country, Marie, All the Way Home, and Hawaii .

Jonathan Hogan has appeared many times on B'way including Fifth of July, As Is (Tony and Drama Desk Nominations) and Burn This. He was a member of the celebrated Circle Rep for twenty-five years and worked extensively there and elsewhere Off- and Off-Off-Broadway, including Keen's productions of The Conscientious Objector, In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer and Pullman Car Hiawatha. He has done films (In Country, The House on Carroll Street), television (all versions of "Law & Order" several Movies-of-the-Week) and is a graduate of The Goodman Theatre and School of Drama.

Gérald Sibleyras (Playwright) penned Le Vent des Peupliers (Heroes) which has been translated and produced in countries worldwide including the UK, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and others. It received the 2006 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Other works include L'Inscription, La Danse de L'Albatros and Une Heure et Demie de Retard adapted by Mel Smith (2006 produced at the Theater Royal Windsor and then on tour all over Great-Britain). Sibleyras adapted William Nicholson's The Retreat from Moscow (produced in Paris in 2007), Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon and Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck. He wrote the book for the musical Rabbi Jacob, which has been running in Paris since last fall. Sibleyras' latest play Le Banc ran at the Theatre Montparnasse in Paris last year. He is adapting his play La Danse de L'Albatros for the screen and will direct it himself later this year.

Tom Stoppard (Translation) was born in Zlin , Czechoslovakia in 1937 and moved to England , via Singapore and India , with his family in 1946. He began his working life in 1954 as a junior reporter on the Western Daily Press. In 1967 Stoppard joined the ranks of the new playwrights with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. This play was followed by other award winning works, including Jumpers, Travesties, Night and Day, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Arcadia, Indian Ink, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia (a trilogy) and, most recently, Rock'n'Roll. His many stage adaptations and translations include Undiscovered Country (Schnitzler), On the Razzle (Nestroy), Rough Crossing (Molnar), The Seagull (Chekhov), Henry IV (Pirandello), Heroes (Sibleyras), Ivanov (Chekhov) and currently Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Tom Stoppard has also written for radio, television and film. His screen credits, as writer and co-writer, include Brazil , Empire of the Sun, Enigma, and Shakespeare in Love, winner of an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He also directed his own screenplay of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Stoppard received a knighthood in 1997 and in 2000 was awarded the Order of Merit by Her Majesty the Queen.

Carl Forsman (Director) is the Artistic Director of Keen Company and Vermont 's Dorset Theatre Festival. For Keen, he directed the world premieres of The Conscientious Objector, Pyretown, Can't Let Go, The Journals of Mihail Sebastian and Beasley's Christmas Party, the American premiere of Conor McPherson's The Good Thief, the NY premiere of Theophilus North based on Thornton Wilder's novel, and revivals of In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Breadwinner, The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, Voice of the Turtle, Good Morning Bill and Museum. Other directing credits include SIN (A Cardinal Deposed) (OBIE Award, Production) and Everythings Turning Into Beautiful, both for The New Group; Tina Howe's translations of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano & The Lesson for the Atlantic Theater Company; and A Few Good Men (Asolo). At the Dorset Theatre Festival he oversees The Kaufman Collection, DTF's commitment to produce all the stage comedies of George S. Kaufman, begun in 2007 with his production of Dulcy.

The scenic design for Heroes is by Beowulf Boritt; costume design is by Theresa Squire; lighting design is by Josh Bradford; and sound design is by Will Pickens.

Keen Company produces sincere plays with the belief that theater is at its most powerful when texts and productions are generous in spirit and provoke identification. Inspired by the works of early 20th Century American playwrights, Keen Company demonstrates that an earnest intent can still be sophisticated and is unafraid of emotional candor, vulnerability and optimism. Keen Company seeks to create a culture of artists, technicians, administrators and audiences who share a desire to invigorate the theater with productions that connect audiences through humor, heart and hope.

John Cullum, Jonathan Hogan and Ron Holgate starring in the New York premiere of Heroes, presented by Keen Company, plays the following schedule at The Clurman Theatre / Theatre Row ( 410 West 42nd Street , between 9th and 10th Avenues): Tuesday - Friday at 8:30pm; Saturday at 3pm; Sunday at 4pm. Please note: There will be no performance on Friday 3/27 or Saturday 3/28. Tickets are $51.25. A benefit performance will take place on Friday 3/6 at 8:30pm. 20 tickets, available for $200 each, will include access to a post-performance reception with the company. Tickets can be purchased through TicketCentral.com or by phoning (212) 279-4200. For more information about please visit www.KeenCompany.org.

 

 

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