Tracy Letts' AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, winner of five 2008 Tony Awards, as well as the 2008 Pulitzer Prize, and currently starring Tony and Emmy award winner Phylicia Rashad, plays its final performance today, Sunday, June 28th, 2009. It will have played 648 performances and 18 previews, surpassing The Heidi Chronicles, Master Class, The Real Thing, and Doubt, among many others, to become one of the longest running plays in Broadway history.
August: Osage County will begin its National Tour, starring Academy award winner Estelle Parsons, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts on July 24th, 2009, before travelling to more than 18 locations all around the country. For more information and dates, please visit WWW.AUGUSTONBROADWAY.COM.
The show currently boasts the most Award winning cast on Broadway: Tony winners Phylicia Rashad ("The Cosby Show", Raisin in the Sun, Gem of the Ocean), John Cullum (Urinetown, Shenandoah, On the Twentieth Century), Elizabeth Ashley (Dividing the Estate, The Best Man), and Frank Wood (Side Man), with Original Cast member (and Tony nominee) Amy Morton, and Anne Berkowitz, Guy Boyd, Kimberly Guerrero, Brian Kerwin, Michael Milligan, Sally Murphy, Mariann Mayberry, and Troy West.
Hailed by the New York Times as "Flat-out, no asterisks and without qualifications, the most exciting American play Broadway has seen in years", August: Osage County, began performances on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on October 30th, 2007 and opened on December 4th, direct from its critically acclaimed sold-out engagement at Chicago's Tony Award-winning Steppenwolf Theatre Company. It subsequently moved to the Music Box Theater on April 29th, 2008, where it has been playing ever since.
August: Osage County was presented by producers Jeffrey Richards, Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler, Jerry Frankel, Ostar Productions, Jennifer Manocherian, The Weinstein Company, Debra Black/Daryl Roth, Ronald & Marc Frankel/Barbara Freitag, and Rick Steiner/Staton Bell Group
The original Broadway company, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, featured Ian Barford, Deanna Dunagan, Kimberly Guerrero, Francis Guinan, Brian Kerwin, Dennis Letts, Madeleine Martin, Mariann Mayberry, Amy Morton, Sally Murphy, Jeff Perry, Rondi Reed and Troy West, with understudies Munson Hicks, Susanne Marley, Jay Patterson, Dee Pelletier, Molly Ranson and Kristina Valada-Viars.
The design team included Todd Rosenthal (sets), Ana Kuzmanic (costumes), Ann Wrightson (lights), Richard Woodbury (sound) and David Singer (original music).
The production received 5 Tony Awards, including Best Play, Best Director of a Play - Anna D. Shapiro, Best Actress in a Play - Deanna Dunagan, Best Featured Actress in a Play - Rondi Reed, and Best Set Design of a Play - Todd Rosenthal.
August: Osage County welcomed many prestigious new cast members throughout its run, including Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons, Tony Award winners John Cullum, Elizabeth Ashley, and Frank Wood. The cast also welcomed Tony nominee JohAnna Day, Robert Foxworth, Molly Regan, Michael McGuire, Michael Milligan, Guy Boyd, Scott Jaeck, Anne Berkowitz, Samantha Ross, Jim True-Frost, and Amy Warren, with understudies Aaron Serotsky, Stephen Payne, Avia Bushyhead, Frank Deal, and Emily Walton.
The thrilling new American play by Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts (Bug, Killer Joe) August: Osage County has been hailed by the New York Times as "hugely entertaining! A ripsnorter full of blistering, funny dialogue, acid-etched characterizations and scenes of no-holds-barred emotional combat." When their patriarch vanishes, the Weston clan must return to their three-story home in rural Oklahoma to get to the heart of the matter. With rich insight and brilliant humor, Letts paints a vivid portrait of a Midwestern family at a turning point that is "not-to-be-missed" (Chicago Tribune). Anna D. Shapiro (The Pain and the Itch) directs the "dazzlingly good" (Chicago Sun-Times) ensemble in what Variety calls "a deep and highly entertaining work, consistently rich, raw and intense, filled with viciousness and vicious wit."
August: Osage County currently performs Tuesday at 7:00PM, Wednesday-Friday at 7:30PM, Matinees on Wednesday and Saturdays at 2:00PM, Saturdays at 8:00PM and Sundays at 3:00PM. Tickets can be purchased at Telecharge.com, or by calling (212) 239-6200. Outside the NY Metro (800) 432-7250. The Music Box Theatre is located at 239 West 45th Street
