Playwrights Horizons News

Tony Award winner Roger Rees has extended his contract and will continue as Gomez in the hit musical THE ADDAMS FAMILY for an additional two months through the show's final performance on Saturday, December 31 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre (205 West 46th Street). Rees plays opposite stage and screen star Brooke Shields as Morticia.

Academy, Tony and four-time Emmy Award nominee Bob Balaban; acclaimed 'White Collar' television star Matt Bomer; Emmy Award-winning journalist Campbell Brown; celebrated playwright and gay rights activist Larry Kramer; two-time Academy Award-nominated, multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning, two-time Tony Award-winning actor John Lithgow; Tony Award nominee and Broadway Impact Co-Founder Rory O'Malley; and Emmy Award winner and three-time Golden Globe Award nominee Bradley Whitford will appear in the world premiere of '8' on Broadway, joining the previously announced Anthony Edwards, Morgan Freeman, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei. The production is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by AFER to overturn Proposition 8, which eliminated the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples in California.

Theatre Exile will launch their 2011/2012 season with the Philadelphia premiere of 2010 OBIE Award-winning The Aliens by Annie Baker.

East West Players (EWP), the nation's largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work and the longest-running professional theatre of color in the country, continues its 46th Anniversary Season, themed Languages of Love, with the Los Angeles premiere of THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE by Julia Cho, directed by Jessica Kubzansky.

William Leavengood's SPECIAL will play Off Broadway at Theatre Row Studio Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street, beginning September 15 through October 2. Elissa Middleton stars; Cat Miller directs.

The producers of the new musical BONNIE & CLYDE announced the complete cast of the show. Previously announced stars Laura Osnes (2011 Drama Desk nominee, Anything Goes) and Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, West Side Story) will be joined on stage by Melissa van der Schyff (Big River) as Blanche Barrow, Claybourne Elder (Road Show) as Buck Barrow, Joe Hart (The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public) as Sheriff Schmid and Louis Hobson (Next to Normal) as Ted Hinton.

La Jolla Playhouse presents the world premiere of Milk Like Sugar, by Kirsten Greenidge, directed by Rebecca Taichman (Playhouse's Sleeping Beauty Wakes), running through September 25 in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. Milk Like Sugar is a co-commission with Theatre Masters, produced in association with Playwrights Horizons and The Women's Project. Get a look at the production below!

Suffolk University and Boston Playwrights' Theatre present Robert Brustein's Mortal Terror, directed by Daniela Varon from September 15 through October 2 at the Modern Theatre at Suffolk University, 525 Washington Street, Boston.

Paper Mill Playhouse just announced the cast for its season opener, the premiere of a new Disney stage musical, Newsies. Revolutionary newsie Jack Kelly will be portrayed by Jeremy Jordan of Broadway's West Side Story and Rock of Ages. Tony® Award nominee John Dossett will play newspaper giant Joseph Pulitzer. The show begins performances on Thursday, September 15. The official press opening is scheduled for Sunday, September 25.

The Lark Play Development Center announced the 2011-12 Playwriting Fellows receiving residencies in its eleven-year-old Playwrights' Workshop program.

The Producers of Mark St. Germain's sellout sensation, FREUD'S LAST SESSION, today announced that the hit play is set to move to New World Stages this fall, beginning performances Friday, October 7th.

American Theater Company (ATC) announced today an addition to the 2011-12 Season: the World Premiere of Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, featuring ensemble member Usman Ally. Disgraced is produced by special arrangement with The Araca Group (Broadway's Urinetown, A View From The Bridge and co-producers of Wicked).

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company (Carl Forsman, Artistic Director/Damon Chua, Executive Director) today announced that their Keith Nobbs, Kellie Overbey and Kevin Kilner would lead the cast of Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky, the 1970 drama by the Pulitzer-winning writer of Talley's Folly, Burn This, and Fifth Of July.

William Leavengood's SPECIAL will play Off Broadway at Theatre Row Studio Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street, beginning September 15 through October 2. Elissa Middleton stars; Cat Miller directs.

Artistic Director, Jayme Kilburn, has announced the lineup for the Station North Arts & Entertainment District-based Strand Theater's upcoming fourth season.

Over six weekends last season, the Mobtown Playwrights Group staged readings of three new plays by writers from Baltimore, Frederick, and the Eastern Shore, including Jessica McHugh, whose dark comedy Fools Call It Fate received a complete production at the Mobtown Theatre this summer.