The four-member cast of Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh's A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE stars Academy Award-winner Christopher Walken and stage and screen stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan. Directed by John Crowley, A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE will begin performances Monday, February 15 and will open Thursday, March 4, 2010 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street. Tickets go on sale Monday, December 14 through Telecharge.com, by phone at 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250, or online at www.Telecharge.com , for this strictly limited engagement which will run for 16 weeks only.
A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE will be McDonagh's first play to originate on Broadway.
The title is just the starting point; take a man searching for his missing hand (Walken), two con artists out to make a few hundred bucks (Mackie and Kazan), and an overly curious hotel clerk (Rockwell), and the rest is up for grabs. A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE is Martin McDonagh's hilariously black comedy, a world premiere which marks McDonagh's first American-set play.
The design team is comprised of Scott Pask (Set and Costume), who won a Tony Award for his set design for The Pillowman, and Brian MacDevitt (Lighting), who won a Tony Award for his lighting design for The Pillowman.
A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE will be produced by Robert Fox.
Christopher Walken (Carmichael) won the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his astonishing performance in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter, a role that also earned him the New York Film Critic's Circle Award, and a Golden Globe nomination. Walken also received a 2002 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and won BAFTA and SAG awards for his role opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can. Walken's film career skyrocketed after his unforgettable role as ‘Duane Hall,' brother to Diane Keaton's title character in Woody Allen's Oscar-winning Best Picture Annie Hall. Since then, Walken has appeared in more than 50 feature films including Herbert Ross' Oscar-nominatEd Pennies From Heaven, David Cronenberg's adaptation of Stephen King's The Dead Zone, James Foley's At Close Range opposite Sean Penn, Mike Nichols' Biloxi Blues, based on the Neil Simon play, Abel Ferrara's gritty crime-drama King of New York, Joe Roth's comedy America's Sweethearts co-starring Julia Roberts and Billy Crystal, Tony Scott's Man On Fire opposite Denzel Washington, Barry Levinson's Maon of the Year opposite Robin Williams, Frank Coraci's comedy, Click opposite Adam Sandler, the smash hit comedy Wedding Crashers opposite Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, and New Line's hit musical comedy, Hairspray opposite John Travolta and Michelle Pfeiffer. Walken has succeeded in creating some of the most memorable characters in film history, appearing in supporting and cameo roles such as: ‘Vincent Coccotti' in Tony Scott's True Romance, ‘Captain Koons' in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, ‘Carlo Bartolucci' in Suicide Kings, ‘The Headless Horseman' in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, and crooked businessman, ‘Max Shreck,' in Burton's Batman Returns. Walken began acting and dancing as a boy. He trained to be a dancer at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan, and eventually went on to appear in numerous stage plays and musicals. He received the Clarence Derwent Award for his performance in the Broadway production of The Lion In Winter, an Obie Award for his role in The Seagull, a Theatre World Award for The Rose Tatoo, and the 1997 Susan Stein Shiva Award for his work with Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. In the Fall of 1999, he co-starred in the stage adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead. In the summer of 2001, Christopher again appeared in a revival of Chekhov's The Seagull for the New York Shakespeare Festival, directed by Mike Nichols, opposite Meryl Streep. On television, Walken has hilariously and memorably hosted "Saturday Night Live" a total of 6 times since 1990 and contributed a mesmerizing dance performance to the Spike Jonze-directed music video for Fat Boy Slim's "Weapon of Choice."
Sam Rockwell (Mervyn)'s theatre credits include the LAByrinth Theatre Company's The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Face Divided, which was part of the EST Marathon series, as well as the off-Broadway production of Mike Leigh's Goose-Pimples. He has also appeared in The Dumb Waiter and Hot L Baltimore for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, both of which were directed by Joe Montello. Films include Moon, the upcoming Everybody's Fine opposite Robert DeNiro, which releases on December 4, and Betty Anne Waters, opposite Hilary Swank, as well as The Winning Season. He also recently wrapped production on Iron Man 2 opposite Robert Downey Jr, which will be released in May 2010. His film's also include The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Snow Angels, Welcome to Collinwood, David Mamet's Heist, Charlie's Angels, The Green Mile, Galaxy Quest, Frost/Nixon, Joshua, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Matchstick Men, Woody Allen's Celebrity; Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lawn Dogs, Safe Men, Jerry and Tom, Box of Moonlight, Drunks; Light Sleeper, Last Exit to Brooklyn, and his feature film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's Clownhouse, while he was still a student at San Francisco's High School of the Performing Arts. Rockwell won critical praise, as well as the Berlin Film Festival's Silver Berlin Bear Award and Movieline's Breakthrough Performance of the Year Award, for his portrayal of Chuck Barris in George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Other awards include Best Actor at the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia for his performance in Joshua and the Decades Achievement Award from Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival.
Anthony Mackie (Toby) was classically trained at the Julliard School of Drama. He starred as Tupac Shakur in the Off-Broadway production of Up Against the Wind and made his Broadway debut opposite Whoopi Goldberg in August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. He played the lead in Regina King's modern retelling of Chekov's The Seagull, starred in Stephen Belber's McReele at Roundabout and starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Soldier's Play. Mackie was part of the August Wilson's 20th Century at the Kennedy Center where they performed staged readings of all 10 plays in August Wilson's play cycle, and he starred in the Shakespeare in the Park production of The Bacchae. On film, he played Eminem's nemesis, Papa Doc, in 8 Mile. His performance caught the attention of Spike Lee, who subsequently cast him in Sucker Free City and She Hate Me. He also appeared in Clint Eastwood's Academy Award-winning Million Dollar Baby, as well as in Jonathan Demme's The Manchurian Candidate, alongside Denzel Washington and Liev Schreiber, and the comedy The Man, starring Samuel L. Jackson. Mackie earned IFP Spirit and Gotham Award nominations for Brother to Brother, which won the 2004 Special Dramatic Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. His films also include Heavens Fall, We Are Marshall, Half Nelson with Ryan Gosling, Crossover; Haven, opposite Orlando Bloom and Bill Paxton, Freedomland starring Samuel L. Jackson, The Hurt Locker (Independent Spirit and Gotham Award nominations), the Notorious BIG biopic, Notorious, as Tupac Shakur, Eagle Eye, Bolden!, Night Catches Us, and he is currently filming The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.
Zoe Kazan (Marilyn) received high praises for her role in Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road. An acclaimed theater actress and graduate of Yale University, Zoe made her New York stage debut in the Off-Broadway revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Other Off-Broadway work includes Things We Want, and 100 Saints You Should Know, for (Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress). Kazan made her Broadway debut in a revival of William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba. Following this role, Zoe was named the recipient of the 2008 Derwent Award. Zoe is the only actor to be awarded the Derwent Award for three roles in one year: Come Back, Little Sheba, 100 Saints You Should Know and Things We Want. Zoe returned to Broadway in the New York adaptation of the critically acclaimed, London hit The Seagull. Zoe is also a talented playwright whose family drama, Absalom, was produced at the 2009 Humana Festival at the Actor's Theater of Louisville. A second play has been commissioned by Manhattan Theater Club. Zoe's films include In the Valley of Elah, Fracture, August, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, I Hate Valentine's Day, HappyThankYouMorePlease, with Josh Radnore, Malin Akerman and Kate Mara and Meek's Cutoff, Michelle Williams and Paul Dano. Up next Zoe will appear in Me and Orson Welles; The Exploding Girl, for which she was awarded Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film by the Tribeca Film Festival; and It's Complicated.
Martin McDonagh's (Playwright) plays include, Broadway: The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lonesome West, The Pillowman (directed by John Crowley) and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, all of which received Tony Award nominations for Best Play; and Off-Broadway: The Cripple of Inishmaan. He received the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2006 for his film Six Shooter and his most recent film, In Bruges, received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
John Crowley (Director) received a Tony Award nomination for his direction of The Pillowman which he also directed at The National Theatre in London. Other London credits include Love Song, On an Average Day and Macbeth (West End), Tales From Hollywood, Juno and the Paycock, The Maids, How I Learned to Drive and Into The Woods (Donmar Warehouse). His films include Is Anybody There?, Boy A and the television film of Harold Pinter's "Celebration." He is currently directing A Steady Rain for Broadway starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig.
