John Lithgow Returns to Broadway in THE COLUMNIST for MTC Apr. 25, 2012; Daniel Sullivan Directs

Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove have announced that Tony and Emmy Award winner John Lithgow returns to Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club world premiere production of THE COLUMNIST by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn, directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan. In this new play, Lithgow plays noted newspaper columnist Joseph Alsop. This limited engagement will begin previews on Tuesday, April 3 and open Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Lithgow is an acclaimed actor, author, musician, and director. He has received two Tony Awards, for the 2002 musical The Sweet Smell of Success, where he played another notable columnist ‘J.J. Hunsecker,' and 1973 for his Broadway debut in The Changing Room. He has received five Emmy Awards, most recently for his acclaimed work in Showtime's "Dexter" for which he also received a Golden Globe Award. He has appeared in over 30 motion pictures and received two Oscar nominations for The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment. In September, HarperCollins will release Lithgow's memoir, Drama: An Actor's Education.

Columnists are kings in midcentury America and Joseph Alsop (Lithgow) wears the crown. Joe is beloved, feared and courted in equal measure by the Washington political world at whose center he sits. But as the '60s dawn and America undergoes dizzying change, the intense political drama Joe is embroiled in becomes deeply personal as well.

David Auburn, whose Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning Proof dazzled audiences and critics alike, returns to MTC with this fascinating new work to be directed by his Proof collaborator Daniel Sullivan.

In addition to THE COLUMNIST, MTC's Broadway season at the Friedman Theatre will include the Broadway premiere of VENUS IN FUR by David Ives, directed by Walter Bobbie, starring Nina Arianda and the Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play WIT by Margaret Edson, directed by Lynne Meadow, starring Cynthia Nixon.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past three decades, MTC productions have earned a total of 18 Tony Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and an Off-Broadway theatre at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; The American Plan; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin.'

For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

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David Auburn (Playwright). David Auburn's plays include The New York Idea (adaptation; Atlantic Theater), Proof (Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award), An Upset and Amateurs (EST Marathons), and Skyscraper. Films include The Girl in the Park (writer/director) and The Lake House. Recent directing credits include Michael Weller's Side Effects for MCC and A Delicate Balance for BTF. His short plays have been collected in the volume Fifth Planet and Other Plays (DPS). His work has been published in Harper's, New England Review, and Guilt and Pleasure; and he was a contributing editor to the Oxford American Writers Thesaurus. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in New York City.

Daniel Sullivan (Director). For The Public Theater, Sullivan directed All's Well That Ends Well, The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino, Twelfth Night with Anne Hathaway, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Stuff Happens, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Among his Broadway credits are Good People; Time Stands Still; Accent on Youth; The Homecoming; Prelude to a Kiss; Rabbit Hole; After the Night and the Music; Julius Caesar; Brooklyn Boy; Sight Unseen; I'm Not Rappaport; Morning's at Seven; Proof; the 2000 production of A Moon for the Misbegotten; Ah, Wilderness!; The Sisters Rosensweig; Conversations with my Father; and The Heidi Chronicles. Among his Off-Broadway credits are The Night Watcher, Intimate Apparel, Far East, Spinning into Butter, Dinner With Friends, and The Substance of Fire. From 1981 to 1997, he served as artistic director of Seattle Repertory Theatre. Sullivan is the Swanlund Professor of Theatre at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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