Bobby Cannavale Leads Roundabout's THE BIG KNIFE on Broadway in 2013; Doug Hughes Helms

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced a new Broadway production of Clifford Odets' The Big Knife, starring Emmy® Award winner and Tony Award® nominee Bobby Cannavale, directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes.

The full cast & design team will be announced soon.

The Big Knife will begin previews on March 22, 2013 and open officially on April 2013 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street). This will be a limited engagement through June 2, 2013.

Says Roundabout Theatre Company's Artistic Director Todd Haimes:"The Big Knife is well overdue for a revival - it's written by one of our greatest American Playwrights with an array of great roles for actors to sink their teeth into. I love the language Odets uses in The Big Knife and how he digs into the dark side of Old Hollywood. This story has all of the glamour we associate with that time and place. Doug Hughes gets this period and this kind of high-style language. As our Resident Director, he also understands Roundabout and shares our dedication to finding exciting, seldom-seen plays like this to revive. I'm a huge fan of Bobby Cannavale, and I think he's one of those modern actors who you can really imagine fitting right into the 1940s. There's something wonderfully old-school about him, and I'm so happy that we'll get to see Bobby take on a great role like Charlie Castle. With the musical comedy of Drood, the romance of Picnic, and now the movie-land drama of The Big Knife, I'm thrilled about the range in our Broadway revivals. And including two new plays off-Broadway that mix drama and dark comedy, If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet and The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin, I think the new season is shaping up to be an incredibly strong and varied one that represents what Roundabout brings to the audience."

Roundabout Theatre Company presents an electrifying new production of Clifford Odets' classic tale about keeping your integrity in the face of success. In the golden age of Hollywood cinema, actors may have all the glory, but studio execs have all the power. The Hoff-Federated studio has had its most successful star, Charlie Castle, over a barrel ever since it helped cover up a mistake that could have ended his career. When a woman with insider knowledge threatens to come forward, the studio heads will stop at nothing to protect Charlie's secret... but how far is he willing to go before he quits the movie business for good? Set in a glossy world of rumor mills and rocky friendships, Clifford Odets' The Big Knife is a riveting, bitingly funny look at how challenging it can be to stay true to yourself-when everyone expects you to play a part.

This is the first new Broadway production since The Big Knife premiered on Broadway in 1949, directed by Lee Strasberg.

Director Doug Hughes is Roundabout Theatre Company's Resident Director. For Roundabout, he most recently staged the world premier of Maury Yeston's musical Death Takes a Holiday and the Broadway production of Mrs. Warren's Profession starring Cherry Jones & Sally Hawkins, A Man For All Seasons starring Frank Langella, A Touch of the Poet starring Gabriel Byrne and A Naked Girl on the Appian Way starring Jill Clayburgh and Richard Thomas.

Only Roundabout subscribers have first access to tickets. To become a Roundabout Subscriber, visit www.roundabouttheatre.org or call Roundabout Ticket Services (212) 719-1300 today. Single Tickets will be available to the general public in the winter of 2013.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE: The Big Knife will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 8:00PM with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00PM.

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Bobby Cannavale (Charlie Castle) made his Broadway debut in Theresa Rebeck's Mauritius, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award®. He was most recently seen in The Motherfucker With The Hat (Tony Award® nomination; Drama Desk Award) and received rave reviews in the 2005 Off-Broadway revival of Hurlyburly. On television Cannavale won an Emmy Award® for his performance as Will's boyfriend on NBC's "Will & Grace." Television appearances include HBO's "Six Feet Under," the ABC comedy series "Cupid" and he is currently co-starring this season on "Nurse Jackie." This fall Cannavale joins the cast of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." Film credits include The Station Agent, (Audience Award Sundance Film Festival; SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture;) The Other Guys, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Diminished Capacity, Fast Food Nation, The Night Listener and most recently, Win Win. He also appears in the upcoming films Parker opposite Jennifer Lopez and Lovelace. Cannavale is a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company.

Clifford Odets (Playwright). 1906-1963. In 1931, Odets began his career as an actor with The Group Theater, a New York company in which he was a founding member. He soon turned to writing, and his first play for the Group, Waiting for Lefty (1935), almost immediately launched him as the most celebrated American playwright of the 1930's. Lefty, as well as four other major Broadway productions in that decade, introduced theater audiences to subject matter and language that had never before been heard on the American stage. Odets' work, spanning the three decades preceding his death in 1963, deeply influenced generations of American Playwrights to follow. Among Odets' other best-known plays are Awake and Sing, Paradise Lost, Golden Boy, Rocket to the Moon, Clash by Night, The Big Knife, The Country Girl and The Flowering Peach. Screenplay credits include The General Died at Dawn, None but the Lonely Heart, Humoresque, The Sweet Smell of Success, and Story on Page One. Film directing credits include None but the Lonely Heart and Story on Page One. Odets also directed the New York premieres of The Country Girl (1950) and The Flowering Peach (1954).

Doug Hughes (Director) has directed the Roundabout productions of Death Takes A Holiday, Mrs. Warren's Profession, A Man For All Season, A Touch of the Poet and A Naked Girl on the Appian Way. He is currently in Dublin rehearsing Glengarry Glen Ross at the celebrated Gate Theatre. Hughes' most recent New York productions include Born Yesterday on Broadway at the Cort Theater and The Whipping Man off-Broadway at MTC's Stage One. He serves as the Resident Director of Roundabout Theatre and has been awarded Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critic's Circle, Lucille Lortel and Callaway Awards for his productions.

Roundabout Theatre Company is a not-for-profit theatre dedicated to providing a nurturing artistic home for theatre artists at all stages of their careers where the widest possible audience can experience their work at affordable prices. Roundabout fulfills its mission each season through the revival of classic plays and musicals; development and production of new works by established playwrights and emerging writers; educational initiatives that enrich the lives of children and adults; and a subscription model and audience outreach programs that cultivate loyal audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company currently produces at four theatres each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. The Stephen Sondheim Theatre offers a state of the art LEED certified Broadway theatre in which to stage major large scale musical revivals. Together these distinctive homes serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2011-2012 season features Marc Camoletti's Don't Dress For Dinner starring Ben Daniels, Adam James, Patricia Kalember and Jennifer Tilly, adapted by Robin Hawdon, directed by John Tillinger; Simon Gray's The Common Pursuit, directed by Moisés Kaufman; Mary Chase's Harvey starring Jim Parsons, Jessica Hecht & Charles Kimbrough, directed by Scott Ellis. Roundabout's Tony Award winning production of Anything Goes starring Stephanie J. Block & Joel Grey, directed & choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, is currently playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. The 2011 Tony® Award winning Anything Goes will set sail on a National Tour at Cleveland's Playhouse Square in October 2012. Following its opening in Cleveland, Anything Goes will cruise into more than 25 other cities during the 2012/2013 season.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2012-2013 season features Rupert Holmes' The Mystery of Edwin Drood starring Chita Rivera, directed by Scott Ellis; William Inge's Picnic directed by Sam Gold; Nick Payne's If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet directed by Michael Longhurst, with Jake Gyllenhaal; Steven Levenson's The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin directed by Scott Ellis.

Joshua Elias Harmon's Bad Jews directed by Daniel Aukin is a world premiere production that launches the sixth season of Roundabout Underground following five critically acclaimed seasons of world-premiere productions since its premiere in 2007.