Producers Julian Schlossberg and Letty Aronson have announced that Caroline Aaron, Bill Army, Lisa Emery, Ari Graynor, Steve Guttenberg, Danny Hoch, Julie Kavner, Fred Melamed, Grant Shaud and Marlo Thomas will star in the ensemble cast of the world premiere production of RELATIVELY SPEAKING, three one-act comedies by the prolific writing trio of Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, and directed by John Turturro.
RELATIVELY SPEAKING will begin previews Tuesday, September 20 and officially open Thursday, October 20, 2011 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47 Street) on Broadway this fall.
The creative team for RELATIVELY SPEAKING will feature scenic design by Tony Award® winner and Academy Award® nominee
Santo Loquasto, costume design by
Donna Zakowska, lighting design by Tony Award® winner
Kenneth Posner and sound design by
Carl Casella.
Additional casting will be announced shortly.
RELATIVELY SPEAKING is comprised of three one-act comedies springing from a different branch of the family tree. In Talk Therapy,
Ethan Coen uncovers the sort of insanity than can only come from family. In George is Dead,
Elaine May explores the hilarity of death. And in Honeymoon Motel,
Woody Allen invites you to the sort of wedding day you won't forget.
Academy Award® winning filmmaker
Ethan Coen makes his Broadway debut after making his Off-Broadway bow as a playwright with the sold out world premiere of Almost an Evening, and his world premiere hit comedy Offices the following season.
Two-time Academy Award® nominated screenwriter and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award winning playwright
Elaine May reunites with producer
Julian Schlossberg, with whom she collaborated on her plays Death Defying Acts, After the Night and the Music, Taller Than a Dwarf, Adult Entertainment and Power Plays starring
Alan Arkin.
Woody Allen returns to the New York stage as a playwright following the world premiere productions of his plays Writer's Block and A Second Hand Memory Off-Broadway.
Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe® Award nominated actor
John Turturro made his Broadway debut in the play LifeX3 and will make his Broadway bow as a director. He has enjoyed a long time collaboration with
Ethan Coen, appearing in his films Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. He produced, directed, and starred in the film Illuminata and wrote and directed the feature film Romance and Cigarettes. Most recently, he directed Passione which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this past year and opens across the country this summer.
RELATIVELY SPEAKING is produced by
Julian Schlossberg and
Letty Aronson and co-produced by
Edward Walson,
Leroy Schecter and
Roy Furman.
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Caroline Aaron made her Broadway debut in Robert Altman's Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and later appeared in the film. The following Broadway season she starred in the Jose Quintero/Jason Robards' revival of The Iceman Cometh. She next starred in Mike Nichols' Broadway smash comedy Social Security. Mr. Nichols first directed her on film in Heartburn. She re-teamed with Mr. Nichols for Working Girl, Primary Colors and What Planet Are You From? She returned to Broadway starring in I Hate Hamlet. She headlined the west coast premiere of Wendy Wasserstien's The Sisters Rosensweig and was acknowledged with both a Helen Hayes and Dramalogue Award. Film audiences perhaps know Ms. Aaron best as Woody Allen's sister in Crimes and Misdemeanors. She also worked with Woody Allen in Alice, Bullets Over Broadway, Husbands and Wives and again played his sister in Deconstructing Harry. Her repeated work for top directors includes working again with Robert Altman on O.C. & Stiggs as well as with Nora Ephron on Sleepless in Seattle, This Is My Life, Lucky Numbers and most recently starring at The Geffen Theatre in Ms. Ephron's comedy hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore. Caroline starred in Kevin Spacey's film Beyond the Sea. Other film credits include Just Like Heaven, Nancy Drew, Surveillance, Love Comes Lately, Edward Scissorhands, Anywhere But Here, The Big Night and Bounce (Blockbuster Award best supporting actress). On television Caroline has guest starred on "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice" all the "CSI's," "Brothers and Sisters," "Shark," "Sex and The City," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Six Feet Under" among many others. Favorite work in television movies includes starring in "Tuesdays with Morrie," "Revenge of The Middle-aged Woman" and "An American Daughter." Most recently Caroline is recurring as 'JoJo' the bounty hunter on "The Young and The Restless." She just finished filming 21 Jump Street for Sony Pictures.
BILL ARMY is thrilled to be making his Broadway debut. Off-Broadway credits include All's Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, The Europeans and No End of Blame. Other New York productions include: The Emperor Antony, Sueno, Acquainted with the Night, Henry Box Brown Play, Romantic Roulette, The Ruby Sunrise, Macbeth and Six Degrees of Separation. Regional: The Call of the Wild, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, An Experiment with an Airpump, Somewhere in the Pacific, and Fools. Alumnus of New York University's Graduate Acting program and Middlebury College.
Lisa Emery has just returned from the Sundance Theater Lab in Banff where she worked on new plays by
Janine Nabers and
Jennifer Haley. Broadway credits include The Women, Present Laughter, The Smell of The Kill, Jackie, Rumors, Burn This. Off Broadway: A Kind of Alaska and Gabriel at
Atlantic Theater Company, Distracted (Lortel nomination) at Roundabout. Mouth To Mouth, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Abigail's Party (Drama Desk and Lortel nominations), What the Butler Saw and Curtains (ensemble Obie) all at
The New Group. Iron (Obie Award, Lortel nomination) at MTC, Lucy at EST, The Maddening Truth at
Keen Company, Dinner With Friends, Far East at LCT, The Monogamist and Marvin's Room (Drama Desk nomination) at Playwright's Horizons, Talley and Sons and Dalton's Back at Circle Rep, Film: Cold Souls, The Night Listener, People I Know,
Roger Dodger, A Map of the World, Unfaithful. Television: "Louie," "Law & Order" (incl. SVU and CI), "The Fringe," "Damages," "Sex and the City," "Ed," "Third Watch" and "Far East" and "The Women" on PBS' "Stage on Screen."
Ari Graynor. Broadway: The Little Dog Laughed and
Brooklyn Boy (MTC and
South Coast Repertory; 2005
Clarence Derwent Award). Off-Broadway: Trust; Dog Sees God, Spanish Girl (
Second Stage). Other theater credits include Fall and Into the Woods (
Trinity Repertory Company), Ah Wilderness, (
Huntington Theater Company), King Lear (The Company of Women). Film: Currently filming lead in Celeste and Jesse Forever opposite
Rashida Jones and
Andy Samberg. Upcoming: What's Your Number? with
Anna Faris and
Chris Evans,
David Gordon Green's The Sitter female lead opposite
Jonah Hill, Lucky and Ten Year. Film includes: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Whip It!, Youth in Revolt, Holy Rollers, Conviction, An American Crime (2007 Sundance Film Festival), Mystic River, Game Six (2005 Sundance Film Festival); Television: Meadow Soprano's troubled college roommate, 'Caitlin' on "The Sopranos," "Fringe," "Veronica Mars" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."
Steve Guttenberg made his Broadway debut in
Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss, starred in The Boys Next Door at the Comedy Theatre and followed that production with Furthest from the Sun at the Juene Lune Theatre in Minneapolis, directed by
Woody Harrelson. He started his film career with The Boys From Brazil directed by
Franklin Schaffner and followed that by roles in 60 films including
Barry Levinson's Diner,
Warner Brothers franchise, Police Academy, Short Circuit,
Ron Howard's Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby and Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window with Isabelle Hupert. Television includes "To Race the Wind," "Miracle on Ice" and the film The Day After. He has directed the film P.S.Your Cat is Dead based on the
James Kirkwood play and currently is preparing for release a film he produced and starred in, A Novel Romance, which recently won Best Feature at the New York Film and Video Festival.
Danny Hoch is an actor, playwright and director whose plays have garnered many awards including a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship for Drama, two Obie Awards, two Sundance Playwrighting and Screenwriting Fellowships, the CalArts/Alpert Award In Theatre and was most recently named a 2010 USA Ford Fellow for his contributions to the American Theatre. His plays have toured to over 50 U.S. cities and 15 countries. His writing has also appeared in The Village Voice, New York Times, Harper's, The Nation, American Theatre, and various books: Out Of Character, Extreme Exposure, Creating Your Own Monologue and Total Chaos and his own Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop by Villard/Random House. His writing and acting credits for television and film include "Nurse Jackie," Bored To Death, Blue Bloods, "Law & Order," Blackhawk Down, "American Splendor," War Of The Worlds, Lucky You, We Own The Night, Bamboozled, Washington Heights, Prison Song, Some People, Subway Stories, Thin Red Line, Whiteboys, HBO "Def Poetry" and the cult-classic film version of Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop. Most recently he can be seen alongside
Keanu Reeves and
James Caan in Henry's Crime, and the upcoming Ted by
Seth MacFarlane. In 2000 Mr. Hoch founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival which has since presented scores of Hip-Hop Generation plays from around the globe and now appears annually in several American cities. He directed
Will Power's Flow (New York Theatre Workshop),
Paul Flores' Representa (Mission Cultural Center) and his own Till The Break Of Dawn at its New York 2007 premiere (Abrons Arts Center). His latest play Taking Over, about gentrification in New York City premiered at
The Public Theater in 2008 after a free tour of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
Julie Kavner won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her voice-over work as Marge Simpson and her sisters, Patty and Selma Bouvier, on FOX's historic, multi-Emmy Award-winning series "The Simpsons."For her performances on "The
Tracey Ullman Show" (1987-90 on FOX), Kavner received four Emmy Award nominations, as well as four previous nominations for her supporting role as 'Brenda Morgenstern' in the situation comedy "Rhoda," winning the coveted Emmy Award in 1987. In 1975 she also received a nomination for her starring role in the daytime special "The Girl Who Couldn't Lose." Additional television credits include HBO's "Tracy Takes On" as well as co-starring roles in the tele-films "No Other Love" with
Richard Thomas, "Katherine" with
Sissy Spacek and "Revenge of the Stepford Wives" with
Sharon Gless.Kavner has appeared in seven
Woody Allen movies including New York Stories: Oedipus Wrecks, Radio Days, Hannah and Her Sisters, Alice and Shadows and Fog, as well as the features Surrender, Movies and Bad Medicine and Click. In 1992 Kavner starred in
Nora Ephron's feature film This is Your Life, and in 1990 co-starred with
Robert DeNiro and
Robin Williams in Awakenings and James L. Brooks' I'll Do Anything. On stage she has played under
Burt Reynolds' direction in Two for the Seesaw with
Martin Sheen at Reynolds' Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Florida. In Canada she starred in It Had to Be You, written by
Renee Taylor and
Joseph Bologna. In New York, she has appeared in Particular Friendships at the Astor Place Theatre, in Lincoln Center's God's Heart directed by
Joe Mantello, in Roundabout's Mineola Twins directed by
Joe Mantello and was in the original cast of The Vagina Monologues in New York and Los Angeles with
Audra McDonald and
Juliana Margulies also under the direction of
Joe Mantello. A native of Los Angeles, Kavner studied Theatre Arts and graduated with honors from San Diego State University.
FRED MELAMED made his Broadway debut in the original, Tony Award® winning production of Amadeus, directed by Sir
Peter Hall. In film, he played villain Sy Ableman, in the Coen Brothers' Academy Award® nominated film A Serious Man, for which he won Film Independent's Independent Spirit
Robert Altman Award. Other significant films include Suspect, The Good Mother, The Mission, The Pickup Artist and
Woody Allen films Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, Another Woman, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Shadows and Fog, Husbands and Wives and Hollywood Ending. On television he appears as
Larry David's smug psychiatrist 'Dr. Simon Thurgood' on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and tough-talking child advocate/attorney
Dan Goldberg on "Law & Order SVU." Upcoming films include Harold & Kumar 3,
Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator and starring roles in Fred, Passing Harold Blumenthal and The Region of Unlikeness. As a writer he had screenplays produced including Girl of the Perfume River, A Jones for Gash, The Asshat Project and most recently The Preservationist. Melamed is the only cast member to have appeared in films written and directed by all three playwrights,
Ethan Coen,
Woody Allen and
Elaine May. Theatrical training at Hampshire College and the Yale School of Drama, which he attended with director
John Turturro. Following his training, he joined The Guthrie Theater Company, and has appeared with other resident theatre companies, including Shakespeare & Co., The Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts and The Yale Repertory Theater.
Grant Shaud. Broadway:
Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy. Off-Broadway:
Woody Allen's Writer's Block (
Atlantic Theater Company),
Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger (
New Group),
Neil LaBute's The Great War (
Ensemble Studio Theatre),
Gina Gionfriddo's After Ashley (
Vineyard Theatre),
John Patrick Shanley's Four Dogs And A Bone (
Manhattan Theatre Club),
Paul Weitz's Roulette (
Ensemble Studio Theatre),
Stephen Metcalfe's Pilgrims (
Vineyard Theatre),
Israel Horovitz's Today I Am A Fountain Pen (Theater 890), Cherie Vogelstein's Brown (
Ensemble Studio Theatre),
Billy Aronson's Reunions (
Ensemble Studio Theatre). Regional: Took over for
Christopher Durang in his play Laughing Wild in Los Angeles. Out (
Philadelphia Theatre Company. Television: Eight seasons as the character Miles Silverberg on "Murphy Brown". Regular on series' "Oliver Beene" and "Madigan Men". Appeared in the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon", as well as "Law and Order", "The
Drew Carey Show", "Medium", "Pushing Daisies" and others. Upcoming on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Louie". Film: The Distinguished Gentleman, Wall Street, Men Seeking Women, The Crow: Salvation, Waltzing Anna, Below The Beltway. Member of The
Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Marlo Thomas has appeared on Broadway in The Shadow Box, Social Security and Thieves and off-Broadway in The Vagina Monologues, The Guys and The Exonerated. She starred in the national tour of Six Degrees of Separation and her regional theatre appearances include Paper Doll at the Pittsburgh
Public Theater, Woman in Mind at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? at the Hartford Stage, The Effect Of Gamma Ray at the
Cleveland Playhouse and New Year's Eve at the
George Street Playhouse. Among her film credits are Playing
Mona Lisa, The Real Blonde, Dust and Stardust, In the Spirit, Thieves, Jenny, and the soon to be released LOL, with
Demi Moore and
Miley Cyrus. On television she has appeared in more than a dozen movies including Nobody's Child, for which she won the Emmy Award for Best Dramatic Actress. She created the "Free to Be...You and Me" TV specials, books and records, and starred in and produced "That Girl," television's first comedy series about a single, independent woman. She is the author of six bestselling books and has been honored with four Emmy Awards and nine Emmy nominations, the Peabody, the Golden Globe Award, the Grammy Award and has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Miss Thomas is the National Outreach Director of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital which was founded by her father
Danny Thomas and lives in New York with her husband
Phil Donahue.
John Turturro (Director). Stage credits include 'Estragon' in Waiting for Godot, the title role in The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, Italian-American Reconciliation, La Puta Vida, The Bald Soprano, Troilus and Cressida, Steel on Steel, and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (OBIE and
Theatre World Award). Film credits include Five Corners, Do The Right Thing, Miller's Crossing, Jungle Fever, Barton Fink (Best Actor 1991 Cannes Film Festival, David diDonatello Award), Quiz Show (Golden Globe and SAG Award nomination), Grace of my Heart, Mac (co-writer and director - Camera d'Or at the 1992 Cannes film festival), The Truce, The Big Lebowski, Box of Moonlight, The Cradle Will Rock, Illuminata (co-writer, director and producer), Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Luzhin Defence, Monday Night Mayhem (SAG Award nomination), Mr. Deeds, and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Upcoming films include Transformers 3 and Cars 2. John has studied with Robert X. Modica and is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz and the Yale School of Drama.
Ethan Coen's (Playwright) two previous plays are Almost an Evening and Offices, both of them evenings of one-acts produced by the Atlantic Theater Company and directed by Neil Pepe. Ethan Coen has written a collection of stories, Gates of Eden, and a collection of poems, The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way. With his brother, Joel, he has made fifteen movies including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, and adaptations of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and Charles Portis' True Grit.
Elaine May (Playwright) began in Second City, where she formed a successful partnership with Mike Nichols. The two appeared in clubs, on TV and Broadway. Ms. May earned a Drama Desk Award for her play Adaptation, a one-act which she directed along with Terrence McNally's Next. She wrote, directed and starred in her first film, A New Leaf, with Walter Matthau. She wrote and directed Mikey & Nicky, starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. She directed The Heartbreak Kid, wrote and directed Ishtar and received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Heaven Can Wait. Ms. May's acting credits in film include Small Time Crooks, California Suite, Enter Laughing and In the Spirit. She reunited with Mike Nichols to write screenplays for The Birdcage and Primary Colors (British Academy Award) and joined with In the Spirit producer Julian Schlossberg to do Death Defying Acts, After the Night and the Music, Taller Than a Dwarf, Adult Entertainment and Power Plays in which she appeared with Alan Arkin.
Woody Allen (Playwright) has written and directed in the theater on a number of occasions, his projects include: Death Defying Acts and Writer's Block amongst others.
