Kenneth Lonergan News

The YALE INSTITUTE FOR MUSIC THEATRE (Mark Brokaw, Artistic Director; Beth Morrison, Producer) will select three original music theatre works to receive two-week workshops in New Haven June 13-27, 2010. Submissions will be accepted November 1, 2009 through January 11, 2010.

The Yale Institute for Music Theatre (Mark Brokaw, Artistic Director; Beth Morrison, Producer) will select three original music theatre works to receive two-week workshops in New Haven June 13-27, 2010. Submissions will be accepted November 1, 2009 through January 11, 2010.

Goodman Artistic Director Robert Falls, acclaimed Canadian director Jennifer Tarver and celebrated star Brian Dennehy team up again for a Broadway-bound double bill, Hughie/Krapp's Last Tape; January 16- February 21, 2010 in the Goodman's Albert Ivar Theatre. Tickets are $25 – $83 and go on sale Friday, November 13 at GoodmanTheatre.org.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the World Premiere of THIS, a new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (Suitcase, [sic]).

According to the cast, a prompter will be on hand for the first week of performances of THE STARRY MESSENGER. As the director/writer Kenneth Lonergan continually made changes up to the first preview performance, actors felt they would be more comfortable on stage with a line prompter in the first row to assist them if they got stuck. Due to the last minute rewrites, the cast was unable to hold a full run through with an audience prior to the first preview. The New York Times reports that during the first preview on Monday, an audience member estimated that the show's star, Matthew Broderick, called out for about 10 lines throughout the night.

The New Group will presents the world premiere of The Starry Messenger written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan as the first production in its 2009-2010 season. This production plays a limited Off-Broadway engagement from October 26 - December 12 at The New Group @ Theatre Row, with Official Opening Night now set for Monday, November 23 at 8:00 PM. This delayed opening is due to a last minute cast change (Merwin Goldsmith replaced Jonathan Hadary) as previously reported.

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced nine initial performers who will participate in the return of its unique benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday, November 9. Among those taking part in the special event will be two-time Academy Award winner and two-time Obie Award winner Diane Wiest (Memory House at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway), Tony Award winner Debra Monk (Assassins at PH, Redwood Curtain, Curtains), Obie Award winner Jason Butler Harner (current Stage Manager in Our Town, Hedda Gabler, The Coast of Utopia), Clarence Derwent Award winner Zoe Kazan (100 Saints You Should Know at PH; Come Back, Little Sheba; Things We Want), Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City and Prayer for My Enemy at PH), Cristin Milioti (The Retributionists at PH, the upcoming The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), Sue Jean Kim (The Drunken City and BFE at PH, 365 Days/365 Plays), Carmen M. Herlihy (The Thugs, Crooked) and Greg Keller (Broadway's Uncle Vanya, The Rainmaker). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The New Group's production of The Starry Messenger has welcomed new cast member Merwin Goldsmith, who has replaced Jonathan Hadary. The Kenneth Lonergan play stars Matthew Broderick and Catalina Sandino Moreno, and is now set to begin previews two days after the previously scheduled date on October 26 at Theatre Row.

InViolet Repertory Theater will present the World Premiere of KISS ME ON THE MOUTH by Melanie Angelina Maras. This new romantic tragicomedy will be directed by Stephen Adly Guirgis at Center Stage (where several of Guirgis' plays were originally staged by LAByrinth Theater Company). Performances of this limited engagement begin previews on November 3rd with opening night slated for Thursday, November 5th.

Second Stage Theatre is pleased to announce that the critically acclaimed production of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY, has extended four weeks, through December 6. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY opened on Wednesday, October 7 and was originally scheduled to run through November 8.

InViolet Repertory Theater will present the World Premiere of KISS ME ON THE MOUTH by Melanie Angelina Maras. This new romantic tragicomedy will be directed by Stephen Adly Guirgis at Center Stage (where several of Guirgis' plays were originally staged by LAByrinth Theater Company). Performances of this limited engagement begin previews on November 3rd with opening night slated for Thursday, November 5th.

American Express will sponsor the upcoming Second Stage Theatre production of Let Me Down Easy, conceived, written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

Matthew Broderick and Kenneth Lonergan have been friends since high school. They worked together before on the film You Can Count on Me, which Lonergan wrote. A high school trip to the Hayden Planetarium is the inspiration for Lonergan's new play, The Starry Messenger, about to open Off-Broadway at The New Group and starring Broderick. The two talk about their friendship and their first stage collaboration tonight at the 92nd Street Y.

After two years of Reduced Shakespeare hijinx, Dustin heads out on tour in the stage version of a kid-lit classic.

American Express will sponsor the upcoming Second Stage Theatre production of Let Me Down Easy, conceived, written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith.

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced it will present the return of its popular benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday, November 9.

Barbara Manocherian, Richard Willis and Anthony Barrile in association with Naked Angels (Geoffrey Nauffts, Artistic Director; John Alexander, Managing Director; Andy Donald, Associate Artistic Director; Brittany O'Neill, Producer) are pleased to announce that NEXT FALL, the critically-acclaimed new play by Geoffrey Nauffts and directed by Sheryl Kaller, will open on Broadway on Thursday, March 11, 2010 with preview performances beginning in mid-February, 2010 at the Helen Hayes Theatre (240 West 44th Street).

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director), in association with Sonia Friedman Productions and Ostar Productions presents Sienna Miller as 'Miss Julie', Jonny Lee Miller as 'John' and Marin Ireland as 'Christine' in the American premiere of playwright Patrick Marber's drama After Miss Julie, a version of Strindberg's Miss Julie, directed by Mark Brokaw.