Zachary James to Join Ruth Stage's NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH Off-Broadway
Theo Devaney directs the immersive production, which lets audience members serve as jury and determine the verdict.
Ruth Stage, in association with Neil and Nancy Weidner, announced that Grammy Award-winning Broadway, West End and opera artist Zachary Jameswill star in its upcoming Off-Broadway production of Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th, 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.
James will play attorney Flint in the limited 12-performance engagement. He 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, James originated the role of Lurch in The Addams Family and appeared in South Pacific and Coram Boy. His extensive career also spans opera, concert, film and television, with credits including the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Succession, The Blacklist, 30 Rock, Murphy Brown and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
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?
“Zachary is exactly the kind of artist we want working at Ruth Stage,” said Chairman and Creative Director Matt de Rogatis. “He has an extraordinary range as an actor and performer, but what excites me most is the depth and fearlessness he brings to the work. Night of January 16th asks its actors and its audience to live inside uncertainty, to question what they believe and why they believe it. Zachary understands that kind of work instinctively, and I'm thrilled to have him joining us as we bring this production to New York. His past work as Hades in Hadestown also makes him an ideal addition to the dark, purgatory-like world we are creating for this production.”
Night of January 16th will feature lighting and scenic design by Christian Specht and sound design by Tomas Correa. Additional casting and members of the creative team will be announced in the coming weeks.
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