Dan Lauria and Patty McCormack Will Lead the Off Broadway Premiere of JUST ANOTHER DAY at Theater555

Coming next month is the off-Broadway premiere of Just Another Day, a play by Dan Lauria about wonderful old friends who may not even know each other, but who relive and celebrate a life together…maybe. A limited engagement (through June 30), previews begin on Friday, May 3 at 7:00 p.m. with an official opening on Sunday, May 12 at 2:00 p.m. at off-Broadway's Theater555 (555 West 42nd Street).

In Just Another Day, a comedy writer and a sophisticated poet in their seventies meet daily on a park bench to exchange wits and barbs, and wax nostalgic about old movies, all the while trying to figure out how they know – and love – each other. At least for that day.

Directed by Eric Krebs, the two-member cast is Dan Lauria (Lombardi,”The Wonder Years”, A Christmas Story) and Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed, Morning's at Seven). Between them, Lauria and McCormack have over 100 years of live theatrical experience, as well as over 150 television shows and films.

"Each time I read Just Another Day, I marvel at the sweetness, the comedy, the intellect and the understanding of old age that Dan Lauria has captured in this play," comments director/producer Krebs. "It is a joyous and deeply moving love story of the complex nature of aging."

The creative team is Joan Racho-Jansen (lighting design), Bettina Bierly (costume design), Bruce Connelly (production stage manager), Ylfa Edlestein (assistant stage manager).

Tickets are $49-$69 ($99 premium) and may be obtained at www.theater555.venuetix.com.

The performance schedule is Wed., Sat., Sun., at 2:00pm; Thurs., Fri., Sat. at 7:00pm.

Just Another Day premiered in the summer season of 2023 at Shadowlands Stages in Ellenville, NY and at Great Barrington Public Theater in Great Barrington, MA.

Biographies

Dan Lauria (Man) has appeared as a guest star in over seventy television episodic programs and more than twenty Movie Of The Week productions plus a score of motion picture credits. Dan is a very familiar face to the off-off, off and regional theatre scene having performed, written or directed over 50 professional stage productions. In 2010/11 Dan was seen on Broadway as the legendary coach Vince Lombardi in Lombardi, with the beautiful and talented Judith Light playing Marie Lombardi. The production was directed by Thomas Kail of Hamilton fame. Dan returned to Broadway in the 2013 & the 2014 productions of the Tony nominated A Christmas Story: The Musical directed by John Rando. However, Dan is most recognized as the Dad on the highly acclaimed, Emmy winning, ABC television show, “The Wonder Years.” Dan was also seen on the Fox TV show ”Pitch” as manager Al Loungo and then joined the family of “This is Us” both series written by televisions most talented writer, DAN FOGELMAN. Mr. Lauria and dear friend, the lovely and talented Ms. Wendie Malick have performed the play The Guys by Anne Nelson, for veteran & firemen org, around the country. The Guys is a tribute to those brave men and women who died on 9/11. Wendie and Dan now do Love Letters as fund raising events for the development of new plays at regional theatres, and to save our planet and the animals that inhabit it. Dan hopes to be able to perform Just Another Day in the style of Love Letters to help regional theaters raise money for the development of new plays. Dan and producer Eric Krebs have worked together since Mr. Krebs started the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ way back in 1976.

Patty McCormack (Woman) Audiences of every medium will recognize Patty from her more than seven decades of stage, screen and television appearances. From her Oscar and Golden Globe nominated performance in The Bad Seed to work in the Oscar and Golden Globe Nominated Frost/Nixon and The Master; starring in her own television series “Peck's Bad Girl” to creating memorable characters on television favorites from “Dallas” to the “The Soprano's”; and her extensive theatrical work beginning with a Broadway debut at the age of six in Touchstone starring Ossie Davis. Patty McCormack brings her diverse range of talent to every role she plays. After playing “Cathy” in Touchstone, she created, at 8 years old, the iconic character of “Rhoda Penmark” in the Broadway production of The Bad Seed, the role she later transferred from the stage to Mervyn LeRoy's classic film. Patty has appeared around the country in productions of Wait Until Dark, Under The Yum Yum Tree, Rod Serling's Storm In Summer, and Neil Simon's Barefoot In The Park; in Los Angeles productions of Time Of The Cuckoo with Jean Stapleton, Lillian Hellman's Another Part Of The Forest, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof directed by Jose Quintero, as well as in Hands Of It's Enemy with Richard Dreyfuss, Hollywood Ever After, What I Did For Love, Ladies Of The Corridor, Miserable With An Ocean View, the national companies of Neil Simon's Rumors and Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig. More recently, she returned to the stage in New York City starring in Mornings At Seven. While making her film debut at 5 years old in Two Guys And A Gal starring Robert Alda and Janis Paige, it was her starring role in the film The Bad Seed - transferred from stage to screen - that made her a household name and which leads the pack of her nearly three dozen feature films including Kathy 'O, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, The Mini-Skirt Mob, Bug, Mommy and its sequel Mommy 2: Mommy's Day, Inhabited, with Malcolm McDowell, Soda Springs and the award winning Shallow Ground and Heart Of The Beholder. Patty's portrayal of “Pat Nixon” in Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon and “Mildred Drummond” in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master marked more than a half century of film work. Television fans have enjoyed Patty's costarring and recurring characters on some of televisions biggest hits: Ingeborg on “I Remember Mama”; as Adrianna's mother Liz LaCerva in HBO's “The Soprano's”; Irene on FOX's critically acclaimed "Skin"; Joan on ABC Family's “Greek”; Evelyn Michaelson on CBS' long-running “Dallas”; and as Sylvie Stephens-Wilkes on the CW's “Hart Of Dixie;” and as Anne Brooks on the hit ABC sitcom “The Roper's”. With over 250 television appearances, her earliest days on television began in the 1950's on dozens of live shows like Playhouse 90 in where she originated the role of Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker.” The 1960's found Patty starring in her own series “Peck's Bad Girl” and on such classic shows as “Rawhide” starring Clint Eastwood, “Route 66”, “Wagon Train” and “Wild, Wild West.” She could be found during the 1970's on such favorites as “Barnaby Jones,” “The Streets Of San Francisco,” “The Love Boat” and “Fantasy Island” and in the 80's on “Hotel,” “Remington Steele,” “Magnum, P.I.,” “Head Of The Class” and “Murder She Wrote.” In the 1990s she guest-starred on favorites such as “Doogie Howser,” “Empty Nest” and “Baywatch,” and started the new millennium on hit shows “ER”, “Family Law” and the long running “NYPD Blue,” just to name a few. With guest starring roles on ABC hits “Grey's Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Scandal;” the CBS series “Hawaii Five-0,” “Shark,” “Criminal Minds” and “Cold Case;” HBO's “Entourage;” CW's “Supernatural,” Hulu's “Chance,” and USA's “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story her creation of memorable characters on web projects Barking Mad, Have You Met Miss Jones?, Atwill and Chicanery, there's no doubt that Patty continues to entertain audiences of every generation. Patty has also been seen in the ABC daytime dramas “General Hospital” and “The Best Of Everything” and in CBS' “As The World Turns,” and in numerous movies made-for-television such as “Night Partners” with Yvette Mimieux, “Invitation To Hell” with Susan Lucci, “On Wings Of Eagles” with Burt Lancaster, and the movies made-for-cable, “Silent Predators,” starring Harry Hamlin, “Acceptable Risk”, starring Chad Lowe, “Mystery Woman: Snapshot” starring Kellie Martin, “Gone But Not Forgotten” with Brooke Shields, as well as “Citizen Jane” with Ally Sheedy, “Elevator Girl” with Lacey Chabert, and “A Moving Romance.” Most recently, Patty starred in “House Of Deadly Secrets” for Netflix, and Hallmark's “Christmas In Evergreen: Tidings Of Joy,” and “Always Amore.” Patty also made very special appearances as “Dr. March” in Rob Lowe's adaptation of “The Bad Seed” for Lifetime, as well its sequel “The Bad Seed Returns.”

Eric Krebs (Producing Director) whose theatrical career spans more than 50 years, has worked as a producer, a theater founder and operator, a college professor and occasionally as a performer. In 1974 he founded the George Street Playhouse regional theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey, now in its 50th year. He built and operated Off-Broadway's John Houseman Theater Center and Douglas Fairbanks Theater for over 20 years. Most recently he renovated and became the operator of a 160-seat Off-Broadway Theater, reopening it as Theater555, 555 West 42 Street in New York City. Off-Broadway he has produced more than 50 plays and musicals. On Broadway he produced: Bill Maher: Victory Begins At Home (Tony nomination for Best Special Theatrical Event), Neil Simon's The Dinner Party, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues (nominated for 4 Tony Awards including Best Musical) and Electra (nominated for 3 Tony Awards). In April 2007, he performed his own 90-minute adaptation of King Lear, a one person presentation entitled Considering Lear. In the fall of 2016, he performed My Father's Voice, a solo presentation of his father's letters from the Ellis Island Prison and the War in the Pacific, 1938-1945. Mr. Krebs recently retired after 50 years as a professor of theater arts at Baruch College, City University of NewYork, where he continued a career as an educator that began in 1969 at Rutgers University (37 years) in New Jersey, where he is professor emeritus.

 

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