BENGAL TIGER's Robin Williams to appear on Nightline 2/25

Robin Williams, who makes his Broadway acting debut this spring in Rajiv Joseph's play BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO, will appear on ABC-TV's "Nightline" on Friday, February 25. Now in rehearsals in New York, BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO begins previews on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 W. 46 St.) on March 11, and opens on March 31.

A finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO is a new American play by Rajiv Joseph and is directed by two-time Tony Award nominee Moises Kaufman.

The Oscar, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning actor Robin Williams will make his Broadway acting debut in BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO, having previously appeared Off-Broadway opposite Steve Martin in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" at Lincoln Center in 1988.

Also featured in the cast are Glenn Davis, Brad Fleischer, Hrach Titizian, Sheila Vand, Necar Zadegan and Arian Moayed.

In Rajiv Joseph's savagely funny and deeply affecting play, BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO - a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Drama - a tiger haunts the streets of present day Baghdad seeking the meaning of life. As he witnesses the puzzling absurdities of war, the tiger encounters Americans and Iraqis who are searching for friendship, redemption and a toilet seat made of gold.

Rajiv Joseph is an American playwright whose plays include GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES, ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER, HUCK & HOLDEN, ALL THIS INTIMACY and THE LEOPARD AND THE FOX. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2009 Kesselring Fellowship from the National Arts Club, and the 2008 Paula Vogel Award for emerging playwrights presented by the Vineyard Theatre.

Robin Williams has more than 40 industry honors to his credit including four Oscar nominations and one win, two Emmy awards, four Grammys and six Golden Globes, including the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award.

In 2009, he concluded his hugely successful comedy tour entitled Weapons of Self Destruction. The show was filmed over two nights at Washington, DC's DAR Constitution Hall, and premiered on HBO as the network's most successful stand-up comedy special of the year, earning three Emmy award nominations.

Williams began his career as a stand-up comedian and has created a repertoire of indelible characters, first in the hit series Mork & Mindy and then in numerous film roles. In 1997, Williams received Academy and Screen Actors Guild awards for his performance in Good Will Hunting, having been previously nominated by the Academy for performances in The Fisher King, Dead Poets Society, and Good Morning VietnaM. Williams' blockbuster films include Mrs. Doubtfire, The Birdcage, Jumanji, Hook, two Night at the Museum films; and the animated films Aladdin, Robots, and Happy Feet.
Having trained at the famed Juilliard School under John Houseman in New York, his other stage credits include a landmark production of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," directed by Mike Nichols and co-starring Steve Martin, and a short run in San Francisco of "The Exonerated," which tells the true stories of six innocent survivors of death row.

Best known philanthropically for his affiliation with Comic Relief, Williams supports numerous causes and has toured the Middle East numerous times with the USO.

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