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Buddeke & D'Ambrosio to Star in Arena's 'Frankie & Johnny'
By: BWW News Desk Feb. 12, 2007
Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage will welcome David Muse (Associate Director, Shakespeare Theatre Company) to stage Terrence McNally's love story Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune in the Kreeger Theater, February 23 - April 8. The show opens on March 1.
"Muse departs from his usual Shakespearean repertoire to bring his expertise to this intimate and witty contemporary production. Celebrated playwright Terrence McNally (Love! Valor! Compassion!, Master Class) delivers a bittersweet play about the forging of a relationship between two lonely mid-life lovers. Johnny, a short-order cook in a diner, goes home with Frankie, a waitress, for a one-night stand. Johnny desperately tries to crack Frankie's hardened heart before she sends him home, and they lose their chance at love. Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune contains adult themes, nudity and strong language."
The Arena Stage production will feature Kate Buddeke as Frankie and Vito D'Ambrosio as Johnny. Stephen Schetzner will lend his voice as the Radio Announcer.
Produced on and Off-Broadway, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune earned several Tony nominations and was adapted into a 1991 film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino. It premiered in 1987 at the Off-Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club with Kathy Bates and Kenneth Welsh in the title roles, and was revived on Broadway in 2002 with Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci, earning two Tony nominations for Best Revival and Best Actor in a Play.
Buddeke returns to Arena Stage where she last performed in Tom Walker and Dancing at Lughnasa (Helen Hayes Nomination). A Chicago native, she is a proud member of American Theater Company. Buddeke is the recipient of five Joseph Jefferson Awards for acting in such productions as Ourselves Alone, Dancing at Lughnasa, Gypsy, David's Mother and Keely & Du. Broadway credits include the Tony Award winning Carousel, Death of a Salesman, Gypsy (portraying Mazeppa with Bernadette Peters) and A Streetcar Named Desire. She has also appeared in films and on TV.
D'Ambrosio makes his Arena Stage debut with this production. Living in Los Angeles, he appeared on stage in The Great Sebastians, Idiot's Delight, Confessions of a Robot (a one man show by Rafael Bunuel), The Inspector General, King Lear and Two Gentlemen of Verona. At Steppenwolf, he performed in Streamers, Tracers, Fool for Love (replacing William L. Peterson) and Three Sisters. His film credits include Nancy Drew (WB this spring), The Usual Suspects, Bonfire of the Vanities, The Untouchables and Color of Money.
Playwright Terrence McNally won Tony Awards for best play for Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class. In addition, Love! Valour! Compassion! won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play. His other plays include Corpus Christi, which was named one of the best plays of 1998 by Time magazine; A Perfect Ganesh, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; The Lisbon Traviata; and It's Only a Play. Mr. McNally has written books for musicals including Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life; The Full Monty; Ragtime; Kiss of a Spiderwoman and The Ritz. Earlier stage works include Bad Habits, Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone? and Things That Go Bump in the Night. He has written a number of television scripts, including Andre's Mother, for which he won an Emmy Award. Mr. McNally has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller grant, a Lucille Lortel Award and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A member of the Dramatists Guild since 1970, McNally was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, and makes his home in New York City.
Visit www.arenastage.org for tickets and more information.
Photo of Terrence McNally by Mark Rupp
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