McCarter Theatre News

Ed Harris, Bill Pullman, Amy Madigan and Glenne Headly are checking into The Jacksonian, Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley's eerie world-premiere set in a seedy motel in Jackson, Mississippi circa 1964. Ed Harris, a four-time Oscar nominee and Broadway vet who recently appeared at the Geffen Playhouse in Wrecks, is Bill Perch, a dentist with ambiguous morality who goes to The Jacksonian to bury his secrets. Estranged from his wife, played by Amy Madigan (Broadway's Streetcar Named Desire and Oscar nominee for Twice in a Life Time), Perch makes his new home in the motel's unsettling world where the subversive becomes commonplace and the passage of time becomes hauntingly unpredictable. As the Perch's lives become intertwined with the inhabitants of the motel - proprietor Fred Weber played by Bill Pullman (most recently seen on Broadway in Oleanna and on-screen in HBO's Too Big to Fail) and bar tender Glenne Headly (most recognizable for her big-screen role in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and recently seen at the Geffen Playhouse in Love, Loss, and What I Wore) - the audience is taken on a surreal trip that is rife with disturbingly dark humor. Helmed by Tony Award winner and Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls, The Jacksonian opens in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse on February 8, 2012.

Front Row Productions has announced that the world-renowned film composer and trumpet player Terence Blanchard will compose the original musical soundscape for the upcoming Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Emily Mann, starring Blair Underwood and opening in the spring of 2012.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) kicks off this summer's Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series with the world premiere of Sex Lives of Our Parents, written by Michael Mitnick. Directed by Davis McCallum, Sex Lives of Our Parents will feature Teddy Bergmann (Peter and the Starcatcher), Lisa Emery (Far East), Daniel Jenkins (Mary Poppins), Virginia Kull (Dividing the Estate), Ben Rappaport (NBC's 'Outsourced') and Mark Zeisler (Second Stage Theatre's Eurydice). Previews begin on June 7th and opening night is Wednesday, June 22

Upcoming Theatre Communication Group Member Shows - 6/19 for New Jersey

The first new star of the new season is here, and he embodies a quintessential Tennessee Williams character.

Following the sold out performances and overflow crowds at its first eight Cino Nights presentations (of new plays by Gary Sunshine, Mando Alvarado, Courtney Baron, Florencia Lozano, Kristen Palmer, Emily DeVoti, Lucy Thurber, and Jessica Dickey) Rising Phoenix Rep continues the series on June 19th at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. with CLOWN BAR by Adam Szymkowicz.

The Tony Award-winning actress Linda Lavin will head the cast of Nicky Silver's new play THE LYONS, to be given its world-premiere production Off-Broadway by the Vineyard Theatre. this fall with previews starting Wednesday, September 21, 2011 prior to its official opening night October 11, it has been announced by Douglas Aibel, artistic director of Vineyard Theatre. Mark Brokaw (HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE) will direct.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival expands its ongoing commitment to the development and production of new work with five new commissions announced today.

A Tony Award winner for his renowned performance in Bob Fosse's Pippin, BEN VEREEN, will perform from his new CD, 'Steppin' Out Live With Ben Vereen', at the UWS Apple Store (on Broadway between 68th and 67th) on June 13th at 7pm.

Upcoming Theatre Communication Group Member Shows - 6/12 for New Jersey

The American Theatre Wing's 64th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 13, 2011 and broadcast on the CBS Television Network. For more information visit tonyawards.com.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents the Penumbra Theatre production of I Wish You Love written by Dominic Taylor and directed by Lou Bellamy. Following its world premiere at Penumbra Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the drama with music runs June 11 to 19, 2011 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. I Wish You Love is produced with the assistance of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. The press opening for I Wish You Love will take place on Saturday, June 11, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. The production features Dennis W. Spears as Nat -King? Cole, singing more than 20 of Cole's beloved songs. Additional casting includes Kevin D. West as Oliver Moore, Eric Berryman as Jeffrey Prince, and Michael Tezla as Bill Henry.