Jill Clayburgh Announced to star in A Naked Girl on the Appian Way

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is thrilled to announce Jill Clayburgh will star in the New York premiere of Tony Award® winner Richard Greenberg's new comedy A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, directed by Tony Award® winner Doug Hughes at the American Airlines Theatre (227 West 42nd Street).

A Naked Girl on the Appian Way will begin previews Friday, September 9th, 2005 and opens officially on Thursday, October 6th, 2005. This is a limited engagement through November 27th, 2005.

Jill Clayburgh (Bess Lapin) returns to Broadway after a 20-year absence having last performed in Design For Living in 1985. She was nominated for two Academy Awards for her work in Starting Over and An Unmarried Woman. Additional Broadway credits include Design for Living, Jumpers, Pippin, The Rothschilds and The Sudden and Accidental Re-Education of Horse Johnson. Following the limited engagement of A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, she will play "Mrs. Banks" in the upcoming Broadway revival of Barefoot in the Park.

Additional cast members and the design team will be announced shortly.

Richard Greenberg returns to Broadway with one of his funniest, most imaginative plays yet. Bess is a successful cookbook author and her husband Jeffrey is a distracted genius whose lives are upended when their two children return from a year of European travel and reveal surprising news that stretches the family beyond their breaking point.

A Naked Girl on the Appian Way is Richard Greenberg's third play at the Roundabout Theatre Company. His previous plays include Hurrah At Last (1999) and The Dazzle (2002), which received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play and a Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Play. Richard Greenberg also earned the 2003 Best Play Tony© Award for Take Me Out and earned two Pulitzer Prize nominations for his play Take Me Out (2003) and Three Days of Rain (1998).

Doug Hughes returns to the Roundabout Theatre Company where he directed Jon Robin Baitz's The Paris Letter and Stephen Belber's McReele, both at the Laura Pels Theatre. He will also direct Roundabout's new production of A Touch of the Poet starring Gabriel Byrne at Studio 54 beginning November 11th, 2005. He earned the 2005 Tony©, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Direction of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt. He also earned the 2004 Tony©, Outer Critics Circle & Lucille Lortel nominations for his direction of Bryony Lavery's Frozen.

A Naked Girl on the Appian Way was commissioned and first produced by South Coast Repertory.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets will be available in August 2005 and available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, check online at www.roundabouttheatre.org for details.

Biographies:

Jill Clayburgh (Bess Lapin) has been nominated for two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, and an Emmy Award for roles in An Unmarried Woman, Starting Over, First Monday in October, La Luna, and "Hustling". She has starred in 25 feature films, including I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can, Silver Streak, Semi Tough and Never Again. Television audiences know her from numerous roles in series and movies including "Nip/Tuck", "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal". On Broadway, she appeared in a revival of Noel Coward's Design for Living, the original production of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, and the Tony Award-winning musicals Pippin and The Rothschilds. Off-Broadway she recently originated the role of "Sunny" in The Exonerated. She will be seen in the upcoming film adaptation of Augusten Burroughs' Running with Scissors scheduled for release in 2006.

Richard Greenberg (Playwright) is the author of Take Me Out (Drama Desk Award; NY Drama Critics Circle Award; Outer Critics Circle Award; Lucille Lortel Award; Tony Award for Best Play), which received an acclaimed production on Broadway after successful runs at The Donmar on London's West End and The Public Theater in New York City. Other works include The Violet Hour, The Dazzle (Outer Critics Circle Award: John Gassner, Lucille Lortel nominations), Everett Beekin, Three Days of Rain (L.A. Drama Critics Award; Pulitzer finalist; Olivier, Drama Desk, Hull-Warriner nominations), Hurrah At Last, Night and Her Stars, The American Plan, Life Under Water, and The Author's Voice, among many other plays. His adaptation of Strindberg's Dance of Death was seen on Broadway starring Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, and David Straithairn. Mr. Greenberg received the Oppenheimer Award for a new playwright as well as the first PEN/Laura Pels Award for a playwright in mid-career. He is an associate artist at South Coast Repertory and a member of Ensemble Studio Theater.

Doug Hughes (Director) is returning to The Roundabout where he recently directed Jon Robin Baitz' The Paris Letter and Stephen Belber's McReele. His Manhattan Theatre Club production of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt is currently running on Broadway at the Walter Kerr. For his work on Doubt, he won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. He is the Resident Director at MCC Theater, where he has directed Last Easter, Scattergood, Frozen, Anadrako and The Grey Zone (Obie Award). Recent work in New York includes Engaged at Theatre for a New Audience; Flesh and Blood, The Beard of Avon and A Question of Mercy, all at NYTW; Othello (with Keith David and Liev Schreiber) at the Public; John Guare's Lake Hollywood at Signature and An Experiment with An Air Pump for MTC. For his work on Frozen, Hughes received Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle and Lortel nominations.

Roundabout Theatre Company is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres. The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences.

The 2005-2006 season marks the Roundabout Theatre Company's 40th anniversary.

The company's 2005-2006 season, under the continuing leadership of Artistic Director Todd Haimes, is dedicated to the community of artists and loyal audience members who have made Roundabout one of New York's most popular not-for profit cultural institutions.

Roundabout Theatre Company productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; New York State Council on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. The Westin Hotel is the official hotel of the Roundabout Theatre Company.

www.roundabouttheatre.org