The Kennedy Center Announces Casting for THE LISBON TRAVIATA 3/20-4/11
By: BWW News Desk Mar. 20, 2010
The Kennedy Center today announced casting for Terrence McNally's The Lisbon Traviata. The play will star Malcolm Gets as Stephen, John Glover as Mendy, and Chris Hartl as Paul and will run March 20 to April 11, 2010 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The production is directed by Christopher Ashley and is part of Terrence McNally's Nights at the Opera, a five-week event featuring three of Terrence McNally's plays performed concurrently on three Kennedy Center stages. The press opening for The Lisbon Traviata will take place Thursday, March 25, 2010 in the Terrace Theater.
The Lisbon Traviata places the two faces of classic theater, comedy and tragedy, in stark relief. Stephen especially adores Maria Callas and dishing the latest gossip with his best friend, Mendy, a wildly flamboyant and catty opera queen. They talk late into the night in an attempt to distract Stephen from his unraveling relationship with his partner. When Stephen returns home to confront his lover, a tragedy erupts on the scale of a grand opera.
Tony Award® nominee Malcolm Gets will play the role of Stephen. His New York theater credits include The Vigil, The Story of My Life, Amour (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), A New Brain, The Molière Comedies, Merrily We Roll Along (Drama Desk nomination, Obie Award), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Obie), Hello Again, Boys and Girls, Finian's Rainbow, Polish Joke, Juno, and The Boys From Syracuse and The Apple Tree, both for the Encores! series. His regional credits include productions with Williamstown, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, ACT, Goodspeed, and Westport Playhouse. Additionally, he was Richard, the tortured artist, on NBC's "Caroline in the City." His film credits include Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Love in the Time of Money, Adam and Steve, Sex and the City, and HBO's Grey Gardens. Mr. Gets sings on many original cast CDs, including Barbara Cook's Mostly Sondheim, his Carnegie Hall debut. His first solo CD, The Journey Home, was released in June 2009 by PS Classics with John McDaniel as conductor. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and Yale School of Drama.
John Glover will play the role of Mendy. His Broadway credits include The Royal Family, Waiting for Godot (Tony Award® nomination), The Drowsy Chaperone, Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony® and Obie Awards), Design for Living, Frankenstein, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Great God Brown (Drama Desk Award). His Off-Broadway appearances include The Marriage of Bette and Boo, The Paris Letter (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Drama League Award nominations), Sorrows and Rejoicings, Oblivion Postponed, Digby, The House of Blue Leaves, A Winter's Tale (Bayfield Award). He has received five Emmy Award nominations for his work on television and has been seen in numerous films including Payback, Batman and Robin, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Scrooged, Gremlins 2, Julia and Annie Hall.
Chris Hartl will play the role of Paul. His theater credits include Primrose, Nicholas Nickleby, Split, Love's Labor Lost, Undiscovered County, The Good Person, Yerma, The Crucible, and Tartuffe. His television credits include Monk, Waistland, As The World Turns, Six Degrees, Rescue Me, The Bedford Diaries, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Guiding Light, and Searching for King Arthur.
Director Christopher Ashley's Broadway credits include Memphis, Xanadu, All Shook Up, Rocky Horror Show (Tony Award®, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations - Best Direction of a Musical), The Smell of the Kill, and Voices in the Dark. His Off-Broadway credits include Regrets Only, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Bunny Bunny, Jeffrey (Obie Award and Luiclle Lortel Award for Outstanding Direction), Communicating Doors, Blown Sideways Through Life, and Das Barbecu. In 2007, Mr. Ashley was appointed artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California. Other recent directing credits include Memphis at both La Jolla Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre; the world premieres of Alfred Uhry's Without Walls at the Mark Taper Forum (starring Laurence Fishburne), and Joe Hortua's Between Us at Manhattan Theatre Club, among others. In 2002, Christopher Ashley directed Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along for the Kennedy Center's Sondheim Celebration.
Playwright Terrence McNally has received four Tony Awards®, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He won an Emmy Award for his television film Andre's Mother in 1990. A year later, he returned to writing for the stage with Lips Together, Teeth Apart. In 1992, Mr. McNally collaborated with John Kander and Fred Ebb on the script for the 1993 Tony Award®-winning musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, as well as on the script for the musical The Rink. Additionally, in collaboration with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, he wrote the book for the musical Ragtime for which he won the 1998 Tony Award® for Best Book of a Musical. His other plays include Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1994, Corpus Christi in 1997, and the play and screen adaptation of Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune.
The Lisbon Traviata features set design by Derek McLane, costume design by David Woolard, lighting design by Philip S. Rosenberg, and sound design by John Gromada.
Terrence McNally'S NIGHTS AT THE OPERA
Terrence McNally's Nights at the Opera is a five-week event featuring three of Terrence McNally's plays performed concurrently on three Kennedy Center stages. Master Class directed by Stephen Wadsworth will star Tyne Daly and run March 25 to April 18, 2010 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. The Lisbon Traviata directed by Christopher Ashley will run March 20 to April 11, 2010 in the Terrace Theater. Golden Age, a new play directed by Austin Pendleton, co-produced with Philadelphia Theatre Company and part of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, will run March 12 to April 4, 2010 in the Family Theater. Two moderated discussions will take place in the Family Theater as part of the Kennedy Center's Explore the Arts Series. "In Conversation: Terrence McNally" takes place on March 15, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. and features the playwright in a discussion moderated by Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser. "Masters of McNally" takes place on March 22, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. and features actors Zoe Caldwell, Audra McDonald, and Richard Thomas in a moderated discussion.
TICKET INFORMATION
Performances of The Lisbon Traviata will run March 20 - April 11, 2010 in the Terrace Theater. Tickets range from $55-$65 and are on sale at the Kennedy Center box office, by calling Instant Charge at (202) 467-4600, or online. Patrons living outside the Washington metropolitan area may dial toll-free at (800) 444-1324 or visit our website at kennedy-center.org.
Theater at the Kennedy Center is presented with the generous support of Stephen and Christine Schwarzman.
For more information, visit the Kennedy Center website at kennedy-center.org.
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