Neil LaBute News

Prospect Theater Company, one of America's leading producers of new musical theater, will present the Off-Broadway premiere of UNLOCK'D, winner of a Richard Rodgers Award and a 'Best of Fest' winner at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Performances begin June 16, 2013 at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project. UNLOCK'D is presented by special arrangement with Judy Loseff Lavin.

The Serbian-American scientist Nikola Tesla most known for inventing the rotating magnetic field and production and distribution of electrical energy based on the use of alternate currents has become more prominent over the years through museums and other art forms.

Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz,and Rafe Spall will star on Broadway in Harold Pinter's BETRAYAL, directed by ten-time Tony Award-winner Mike Nichols. BETRAYAL will begin performances on Tuesday, October 1 at the Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). Opening night is Sunday, November 3. BETRAYAL is a strictly limited engagement, running 14 weeks only, through January 5, 2014.

Artists Rep is thrilled to present the West Coast premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher's play Ten Chimneys from April 23 through May 26, 2013. This revealing comedy peers into the backstage lives of Broadway power-duo Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and summers spent at their legendary Wisconsin estate, Ten Chimneys.

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 14 categories and two additional special awards for the 2013 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Lortel Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 5, 2013 at NYU Skirball Center beginning at 7:00pm EST, and hosted by acclaimed stage and screen actors Aasif Mandvi and Maura Tierney. This year's event will once again benefit The Actors Fund.

On Sunday, June 16 at 7:30pm at the Alice Griffin Jewelbox Theatre in the Pershing Square Signature Center, the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Gala 'One Acts for a Cause' will showcase three new one-act plays by acclaimed playwrights Neil LaBute, John Patrick Shanley and Winter Miller (Neil LaBute and Winter Miller's pieces will be world premieres). The evening, which will start with a VIP reception with the playwrights at 6:30pm followed by the performance at 7:30pm, will raise funds for the non-profit Safe Horizon, the leading victim services agency in the United States. VIP tickets are $300 (orchestra ticket & reception ticket); show-only tickets are $200 (orchestra) and $150 (mezzanine) and tickets can currently be purchased online at www.PlanetConnections.org.

Profiles Theatre continues its 2012-2013 Season with the Midwest Premiere of The Dream of Burning Boy by West Read, directed by Artistic Director Joe Jahraus. The production, which was postponed due to a cast health matter, opened last night, April 1, 2013, and runs through April 14, 2013 at Profiles Theatre's Alley Stage, 4147 N. Broadway. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

George Contini displays ease and sensibility when it comes to directing. This is what makes him a true veteran. Not to mention, he's an incredibly compassionate and endearing human being, which I'll add, just makes him that much better at what he does. George will be directing Leslye Headland's new office comedy Assistance, this April at Pinch 'n' Ouch Theatre.

Closing Aurora's 21st season is the Bay Area Premiere of Neil LaBute's dark, edgy comic drama THIS IS HOW IT GOES, directed by Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross (The Shape of Things, A Delicate Balance), and featuring Aldo Billingslea (Collapse), Gabriel Marin (Collapse, Jack Goes Boating), and Carrie Paff (A Delicate Balance, Collapse, Betrayal). THIS IS HOW IT GOES, about which the Chicago Tribune raved "Highly recommended! LaBute's play has a lot of sting and nothing is as it seems!" presents a one-two punch after LaBute's Fat Pig (staged at Aurora in 2009), tweaking perspectives of truth and interpretation to broach sharp questions about race, love, and manipulation.

Ron Eldard (Justified, ER), Freddy Rodriguez (Rico in Six Feet Under) and Bill Smitrovich (Drew Thatcher in Life Goes On) are set to appear in American Buffalo, a revival of David Mamet's American classic.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company, now celebrating its 21st season, lit up the night on Saturday, March 23 with an evening of heavenly wining and dining at Aurora Borealis, the company's 15th annual benefit, held at The Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. Over 218 guests attended the fundraising fete honoring Robert B. Hetler (Berkeley), and co-chaired by Ellen Levine (Oakland) and Jacquelin Ewing (Walnut Creek); the event raised upwards of $200,000. Funds raised at Aurora Borealis will support Aurora Theatre Company's outstanding live performances, innovative education program, and the Global Age Project new works program. Individual tickets to the invitation only event sold for $295, with tables going for $3000-$7,500.

In an interview with The New York Times, stage and screen star Jeremy Piven talks about his early exit, due to mercury poisoning, from 2009's Speed-the-Plow on Broadway and the subsequent breach-of-contract dispute.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre will honor two of Broadway's most distinguished producers, Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel, at its 45th Anniversary Gala, Monday evening, May 20, at 6:30pm at SIR Stage 37, 508 West 37th Street. Tickets are $500 and $1,000.

VS. THEATRE COMPANY has announced its first production in its permanent new theatre, COPS AND FRIENDS OF COPS, written and directed by Ron Klier. COPS AND FRIENDS OF COPS will preview on Wednesday, April 24 & Thursday, April 25 at 8pm and will open on Friday, April 26 at 8pm and run through Saturday, June 1 at the new home of VS. Theatre Company (the former Black Dahlia Theatre), 5453 W. Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles.

The Brick Theater, Inc. presents Decennial: A Brick Odyssey, a fundraiser celebrating The Brick's 10 years, tonight, March 25, 7pm at The Brooklyn Brewery, 79 N 11th St Brooklyn, NY. The evening will feature a stealth presentation of The One-Minute Play Festival, with new plays written by Mike Daisey, Neil LaBute, Kristoffer Diaz, Greg Kotis, Rachel Alxer, Bathsheba Doran, Qui Nguyen, Mac Rogers, Eliza Bent, John DeVore, Adam Szymkowicz, Kristen Greenidge and Robert Askins. Plus, a new episode of The Brick's long-running hit serial Penny Dreadful, as well as VJ Fuzzy Bastard & The Waystation (a temporal transmedia experience).

Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced casting for the upcoming third annual Next Up, continuing Steppenwolf's commitment to Chicago's next generation of theater artists.

America's obsession with physical beauty is confronted headlong in reasons to be pretty, a brutal and exhilarating work by playwright and screenwriter Neil LaBute. Is there more to life than simply how one looks?

The Brick Theater, Inc. presents Decennial: A Brick Odyssey, a fundraiser celebrating The Brick's 10 years, on Monday, March 25, 7pm at The Brooklyn Brewery, 79 N 11th St Brooklyn, NY. The evening will feature a stealth presentation of The One-Minute Play Festival, with new plays written by Mike Daisey, Neil LaBute, Kristoffer Diaz, Greg Kotis, Rachel Alxer, Bathsheba Doran, Qui Nguyen, Mac Rogers, Eliza Bent, John DeVore, Adam Szymkowicz, Kristen Greenidge and Robert Askins. Plus, a new episode of The Brick's long-running hit serial Penny Dreadful, as well as VJ Fuzzy Bastard & The Waystation (a temporal transmedia experience).

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) has just announced that Leslie Bibb (Iron Man, ABC's 'GCB') and Jenna Fischer (NBC's 'The Office') will be making their New York City stage debuts opposite Josh Hamilton (The Coast of Utopia) and Fred Weller (MCC's Still Life and In a Dark Dark House) in the world premiere of MCC Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute's new play, Reasons to Be Happy, which LaBute will also direct. Reasons to Be Happy is a companion piece to LaBute's critically-acclaimed award-winning play, Reasons to Be Pretty, first produced at MCC Theater in 2008 before moving to Broadway where it was nominated for three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Play. Performances begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on May 16, 2013 and continue through June 23, 2013. An official opening is set for June 11, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are now on sale.

According to Deadline.com, The Office's Jenna Fischer will be starring in Neil LaBute's Reasons To Be Happy off-Broadway at MCC Theater's Lucille Lortel Theater, beginning May 16, the same night The Office finale will air on NBC. The show will open on June 11, 2013. This will be Fischer's stage debut.