Photo Flash: Arena Stage's A TIME TO KILL Celebrates Opening Night

Broadway's Sebastian Arcelus, who previously appeared onstage in ELF and JERSEY BOYS, is trying on a more serious, and non-singing role in A TIME TO KILL. The play is a Rupert Holmes' adaptation of a novel by John Grisham and opened, May 22 at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, after previews which began on May 6. Check out phots from the opening below!

The Cast of A Time to Kill features Sebastian Arcelus as the defendant's attorney Jake Brigance (recently seen on Broadway starring in Elf and Jersey Boys), Dion Graham as Carl Lee Hailey (Marcus Gardley's On the Levee at Lincoln Center), Rosie Benton as Jake's youthful law clerk Ellen Roark (seen at Arena last season in Stick Fly and in Broadway's Accent on Youth), Erin Davie as Jake's wife Carla Brigance (Broadway's A Little Night Music) and Brennan Brown as Rufus Buckley (The Persians in New York, dir. by McSweeny). The distinguished cast is rounded out by Jeffrey M. Bender, Trena Bolden Fields, Jonathan Lincoln Fried, Deborah Hazlett, Joe Isenberg, Chike Johnson, Michael Marcan, Hugh Nees, Evan Thompson and John C. Vennema.

A TIME TO KILL is directed by Ethan McSweeney and runs through June 19 at arena's Kreeger Theatre in the Mead Center for American Theater.

A Time to Kill depicts a Mississippi town's upheaval when Carl Lee Hailey takes the law into his own hands following an unspeakable crime committed against his daughter. Now on trial for murder, Carl Lee's only hope lies with one young, idealistic lawyer Jake Brigance, who is outmatched by the formidable district attorney, Rufus Buckley, and under attack from both sides of a racially divided city.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.arenastage.org, by phone at 202-488-3300 or at the Sales Office at 1101 Sixth St., SW, D.C.

Photo Credit: Scott Suchman