Photo Flash: Jeremy Lawrence in LONELY MAN'S HABIT

Tennessee Williams is the subject of A LONELY MAN'S HABIT, a new play performed and written by Jeremy Lawrence, inspired by the words and work of the legendary author who would have celebrated his 100th birthday last Sunday. Performances begin Wednesday, March 30 at the cell (338 West 23rd St), running through April 16.

In A LONELY MAN'S HABIT, Tennessee Williams is working, with the Ink Spots on the stereo, a trick in the bedroom, and fighting off his "blue devils" by revisiting the past through his notebooks. The famed author of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, VIEUX CARRÈ and THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE creates a new memory play for himself by playing with memories that are sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful as he seeks to meet the one challenge he sets for himself each morning: to go on working because it is his life's great joy.

A LONELY MAN'S HABIT is directed by Jim Gaylord, who helmed Colm Magner's SCAVENGER'S DAUGHTER at last year's New York International Fringe Festival.

Playwright and actor Jeremy Lawrence recently appeared in the all-star CELEBRATION OF Tennessee Williams at the 92nd Street Y and in the Mint Theatre's revival of WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS. He will be returning for his seventh annual appearance at the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in mid-March with a fourth one-man Williams show. His first, TALKING TENNESSEE, was named Critics Choice by the LA Times, and led to him being cast in FIVE BY TENN, directed by Michael Kahn, at the Kennedy Center and Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club. His second solo Williams piece, EVERYONE EXPECTS ME TO WRITE ANOTHER STREETCAR, was produced in New York for a limited run by TOSOS. John Guare has said of the work, "Lawrence's uncanny and unsentimental depiction of Tennessee Williams as a playwright and man at the end of his life is thrillingly eerie, on target, and life affirming." And, in New Orleans' Times Picayune, Ann Maloney wrote: "Jeremy Lawrence captures the charm and angst of Tennessee Williams. If you weren't lucky enough to know [him] personally, the next best thing is Jeremy Lawrence. His uncanny portrayal of the writer is authentic Tennessee."

Jeremy Lawrence's A LONELY MAN'S HABIT runs in repertory with Bob Jaffe's ...AND THEN YOU GO ON. AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE WORKS OF Samuel Beckett, as part of SEE-SAW SOLO @ the cell (338 West 23rd Street), through April 16: Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm. General admission tickets are $18; students/seniors $10 (password: seesaw). For reservations, call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.brownpapertickets.com.

Photos by Joseph Weiman