IT'S ONLY A PLAY, Starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, Opens Tonight on Broadway

The star-studded Broadway production of the backstage comedy It's Only A Play, by 4-time Tony Award winner Terrence McNally, opens tonight, October 9, 2014, at Broadway's Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street).

Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham, Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick, Emmy and Tony Award winner Stockard Channing, international film sensation Rupert Grint, Tony Award winner Nathan Lane, Emmy Award winner Megan Mullally, and newcomer Micah Stock star in It's Only a Play. 3-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien directs.

In It's Only A Play, it's opening night of Peter Austin's (Matthew Broderick) new play as he anxiously awaits to see if his show is a hit. With his career on the line, he shares his big First Night with his best friend, a television star (Nathan Lane), his fledgling producer (Megan Mullally), his erratic leading lady (Stockard Channing), his wunderkind director (Rupert Grint), an infamous drama critic (F. Murray Abraham), and a fresh-off-the-bus coat check attendant (Micah Stock) on his first night in Manhattan. It's alternately raucous, ridiculous and tender - and proves that sometimes the biggest laughs happen offstage.

The design team for It's Only A Play includes scenic design by Tony winner Scott Pask, costume design by Academy Award and Tony winner Ann Roth, lighting design by Philip Rosenberg, and sound design by Fitz Patton.

Mr. McNally-a four-time Tony Award winning playwright-recently celebrated the premiere of his 20th Broadway production, Mothers and Sons, which marks his 50th year on Broadway. Mothers and Sons, which was nominated for Best Play at the 2014 Tony Awards, recently ended its celebrated Broadway run June 22, 2014 at the Golden Theatre and will be seen in more than twenty countries next year.

It's Only A Play is produced on Broadway by Tom Kirdahy, Roy Furman, Ken Davenport, Hunter Arnold, Morris Berchard and Susan Dietz, Caiola Productions, Carl Daikeler, Jim Fantaci, Wendy Federman, Barbara Freitag and Loraine Alterman Boyle, Hugh Hayes, Jim Herbert, Ricardo F. Hornos, Stephanie Kramer, LAMS Productions, Scott Landis, Mark Lee and Ed Filipowski, Harold Newman, Roy Putrino, Sanford Robertson, Tom Smedes and Peter Stern, and Brian Cromwell Smith.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus