Cynthia Nixon Returns to Broadway in WIT at MTC, Jan. 2012; THE COLUMNIST Delayed

Manhattan Theatre Club has just announced that Tony and Emmy Award winner Cynthia Nixon will return to MTC to star in the Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play WIT by Margaret Edson, directed by MTC's award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow. The limited engagement of WIT will begin previews Thursday, January 5, 2012 and open Thursday, January 26, 2012 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Nixon returns to Manhattan Theatre Club following her Tony Award-winning performance in David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole. Nixon is one of the most acclaimed and sought after actresses working today. In addition to Rabbit Hole, her stage credits include: Distracted, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Women, and her remarkable simultaneous Broadway performances in Hurlyburly and The Real Thing. Nixon earned her first Emmy as ‘Miranda Hobbes' in the iconic HBO series "Sex and the City," and a second Emmy for her guest starring role on "Law & Order: SVU." She can currently be seen in Showtime's critically acclaimed series "The Big C" opposite Laura Linney.

WIT follows a brilliant and exacting poetry professor (Nixon) as she undergoes experimental treatment for cancer. A scholar who devoted her life to academia, she must now face the irony and injustice of becoming the subject of research.

WIT had its New York premiere in 1998 receiving universal acclaim and ran Off-Broadway for over 500 performances. It was the most honored play of the season garnering the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was named Best Play by the New York Drama Critic Circle, the Drama Desk Awards, the Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Drama League, and the Lucille Lortel Awards.

MTC's upcoming world premiere of David Auburn's THE COLUMNIST, which had been previously announced for January dates, will now begin previews on Tuesday, April 3 and open Wednesday, April 25 at the Friedman Theatre.

Additional casting, creative team, and other listings information for the production will be announced in the coming weeks. Subscriptions to MTC's 2011-2012 season are available online at www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com. Single tickets to WIT will be available beginning Tuesday, September 6.

In addition to WIT, MTC's Broadway season at the Friedman Theatre will include the Broadway premiere of VENUS IN FUR by David Ives, directed by Walter Bobbie, starring Nina Arianda and THE COLUMNIST by David Auburn.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past three decades, MTC productions have earned a total of 18 Tony Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and an Off-Broadway theatre at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; The American Plan; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin.'

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Margaret Edson (Playwright) was born in Washington, DC in 1961. Between earning degrees in history and literature, she worked in the cancer and AIDS inpatient unit of a research hospital. Wit, her first and only play, was written in 1991. It received its first production in 1995 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. The HBO production won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie in 2001. The play has received hundreds of productions in dozens of languages and is taught in classes ranging from high-school English to medical ethics. Edson is in her 19th year as a public school teacher. After many years teaching kindergarten, she currently teaches sixth grade social studies at Inman Middle School in Atlanta. She and her partner Linda Merrill are the proud parents of two sons, Tim, 11, and Pete, 9.

Lynne Meadow (Director) has been the visionary and artistic leader of Manhattan Theatre Club since 1972, creating work that has put the company at the forefront of the American theatre. Lynne has overseen hundreds of world ,US and New York premieres; directed dozens of new plays on and off Broadway by America's and England's finest playwrights; and accepted every major theatre award, (Tonys, Drama Desks, Obies, etc.) on behalf of the company.

Her shows as a director include: Donald Margulies' Collected Stories on Broadway; the 2001 Tony Award-nominated production of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife on Broadway, at MTC; the Broadway production of A Small Family Business; Donald Margulies' The Loman Family Picnic, Off-Broadway; Alan Ayckbourn's award-winning Woman in Mind and Absent Friends; the Obie Award-winning Ashes by David Rudkin; Charles Busch's Our Leading Lady; David Greig's The American Pilot; Ron Hutchinson's Moonlight and Magnolias; Marsha Norman's Last Dance; David Edgar's The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs; Principia Scriptoriae; Lee Blessing's Eleemosynary; Biography; Simon Gray's Close of Play and Sally and Marsha.

Some of the world and New York premieres produced under her artistic direction include, the Fats Waller musical, Ain't Misbehavin' ; Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart (Pulitzer Prize) and The Miss Firecracker Contest; Richard Greenberg's Eastern Standard; Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together; Athol Fugard's Playland; Charlayne Woodard's Pretty Fire; Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony Award for Best Play) and Lisbon Traviata; A.R. Gurney's Sylvia; David Lindsay-Abaire's Fuddy Meers, Rabbit Hole (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award nomination for Best Play) and Good People; August Wilson's King Hedley II; David Auburn's Proof (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play); Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen (Pulitzer Prize finalist) and Time Stands Still; John Patrick Shanley's Doubt (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play); Alfred Uhry's LoveMusik suggested by the letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, Lynn Nottage's Ruined (Pulitzer Prize); George S. Kaufman's and Edna Ferber's The Royal Family; Lee Hall's The Pitmen Painters.

Lynne is a graduate of Bryn Mawr, and attended the Yale School of Drama. She has taught at Yale, Fordham, NYU, etc. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lee Reynolds Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, the Manhattan Award from Manhattan Magazine, the Person of the Year from National Theatre Conference, the Margo Jones Award, the 2003 Mr. Abbott Award, and this past spring The Lucille Lortel Award for lifetime achievement and The Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Cynthia Nixon (Vivian Bering, Ph.D.). Emmy and Tony Award winner Cynthia Nixon has been a critically acclaimed and sought after actress since the age of 12. Nixon will next appear in the film Rampart with Anne Heche and Woody Harrelson. She will also reprise her guest starring role on season two of Showtime's critically acclaimed hit "The Big C" opposite Laura Linney.

Nixon last played Michele Davis in Curtis Hanson's "Too Big to Fail" for HBO, a story about the collapse of Wall Street and the financial crisis of 2008 in which a group of powerbrokers decide the fate of the world's economy in a matter of a few weeks. The telepic also stars James Woods, Paul Giamatti and William Hurt. Prior to that Nixon starred in the sequel to New Line's 2008 summer blockbuster Sex and the City: the Movie, which was released on May 27, 2010. She also recently played in Richard Laxton's An Englishman in New York opposite John Hurt. Beforehand, she appeared in Derick and Steven Martini's film Lymelife along with Alec Baldwin and Timothy Hutton and played opposite John Leguizamo in The Babysitters, which premiered at the 2008 The Tribeca Film Festival. Nixon was seen in New Regency's feature Little Manhattan as well as in Alex Steyermark's One Last Thing, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and was screened at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. The actress starred in HBO's telepic "Warm Springs," in which she plays Eleanor Roosevelt opposite Kenneth Branagh's Franklin Roosevelt. This role earned Nixon a Golden Globe nomination, a SAG Award nomination, and an Emmy nomination. In 2004 she starred in the mini-series "Tanner on Tanner," directed by Robert Altman and written by Garry Trudeau, a sequel to "Tanner '88."

For six seasons Nixon starred as ‘Miranda Hobbes' in HBO's much celebrated series, "Sex and the City," a role that garnered her an Emmy Award in 2004 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, two other Emmy nominations, and four consecutive Golden Globe nominations. Nixon was honored with the 2001 and 2004 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Nixon was most recently seen onstage as ‘Mama' in Lisa Loomer's Off-Broadway play Distracted, which was directed by Mark Brokaw for the Roundabout Theatre. Nixon's performance earned her a Drama League nomination. Prior to that she performed the title role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In 2006 the actress completed a successful run in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize winning play Rabbit Hole for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress, as well as earned a Drama League nomination and an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. Prior to that, she performed on Broadway as ‘Mary Haines' in The Roundabout's revival of The Women, which was also broadcast on PBS' "Stage to Screen" series. Nixon won a Theatre World Award at 14 for her stage debut as ‘Dinah Lord' in Ellis Rabb's production of The Philadelphia Story at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. At 15, she was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Louis Malle in the title role of John Guare's Lydie Breeze. Most remarkably, at age 18, she appeared simultaneously in two Broadway productions, David Rabe's Hurlyburly and Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, both directed by Mike Nichols.

Nixon began her film career at age 12 with Ronald F. Maxwell's Little Darlings and went on to appear in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City, Milos Forman's Amadeus, Robert Altman's O.C. & Stiggs, Marshall Brickman's The Manhattan Project, Let it Ride, Addams Family Values, The Pelican Brief, John Hughes' Baby's Day Out, Marvin's Room, The Out-of-Towners, Igby Goes Down, and Advice from a Caterpillar, based on the play by Douglas Carter Beane.

Nixon's very first professional job was the ABC After-School Special "Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid," costarring Butterfly McQueen. She went on to appear in PBS's presentation of Mark Twain's "Private History of a Campaign that Failed," Lanford Wilson's "Fifth of July" and Jonathan Marc Sherman's "Women and Wallace" (the last two for "American Playhouse").

She has most recently appeared on network television in a guest role on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," as well as on "Law & Order: SVU," a role which earned her an Emmy Award for Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Additional appearances include "House," "ER," and "Papa's Angels." In 2009, Nixon was awarded a Best Spoken Word Album Grammy for her recording of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

Born and raised in New York City, Nixon attended Hunter College High School and has a degree in English Literature from Barnard College. She and her fiancée Christine live in New York City with their daughter, Samantha, and sons, Charlie and Max.