Judith Ivey Joins Jessica Chastain, David Strathairn & Dan Stevens in Broadway-Bound THE HEIRESS

Tony Award® winner Judith Ivey joins Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain, Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® Award winner David Strathairn and the leading man of "Downton Abbey" Dan Stevens in a new production of the unforgettable drama and Tony Award® winning play The Heiress. Written by Ruth & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award® nominated playwright and director Moisés Kaufman. The Heiress will be produced by Paula Wagner, Roy Furman and Stephanie P. McClelland.

Preview performances begin October 7, 2012 at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 W. 48th St. NYC). Opening night is November 1, 2012. This is a strictly limited run through February 10, 2013. In this timeless New York love story, a protected young woman (Jessica Chastain) finds herself caught between her steely, grief-stricken father (David Strathairn) and a mysterious, handsome suitor (Dan Stevens). The power of passion, loss and money scars their lives in this unforgettable drama.

Ms. Ivey (Aunt Penniman) is a two time Tony Award® winner for Steaming and Hurlyburly. Judith appeared in the 1997 film version of Washington Square, on which The Heiress is based. Judith starred in four television series, the most memorable being "Designing Women". Some recent television credits include "Nurse Jackie," "Big Love," "A Person of Interest," "White Collar," "Grey's Anatomy." Judith's recent New York stage performances include Eppie Lederer/Ann Landers in The Lady with all the Answers at the Cherry Lane, Shirley Valentine at the Long Wharf Theatre, and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie at Roundabout Theatre Company, for which she received the Lucille Lortel Award and critical praise.

Ms. Chastain was nominated for a 2012 Academy Award®, Golden Globe® Award and Screen Actor's Guild Award for her performance as "Celia Foote" in The Help. Her work in The Tree of Life (2011) and Take Shelter (2011) has garnered critical acclaim and multiple awards as Best Actress from the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Chicago Film Critics Association. Jessica has a variety of feature film projects in the works including Lawless and Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, about the capture of Osama Bin Laden, scheduled for release in December 2012.

Mr. Strathairn will star opposite Daniel Day Lewis in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and can be been seen in HBO's Hemingway and Gellhorn starring alongside Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. He won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival and in 2006 earned nominations from the Academy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Independent Spirit Awards for his compelling portrait of legendary CBS news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney's Oscar-nominated drama Good Night, and Good Luck. Mr. Strathairn won an Emmy in 2010 for Best Supporting Actor in the HBO project, Temple Grandin. In addition to appearing on Broadway, he has maintained a high profile in the theatrical world with roles at such venues as the Manhattan Theatre Club, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Soho Rep, the Hartford Stage Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre and Seattle Repertory.

Mr. Stevens is currently shooting season three of "Downton Abbey," the Golden Globe-winning series written by Julian Fellowes, reprising the leading role of "Matthew Crawley." On stage, Dan's credits include the lead role of "Septimus Hodge" in David Leveaux's hit West End production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, and the "Doctor" in Tom Stoppard and André Previn's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at The National Theatre. He has worked frequently with Sir Peter Hall on productions including The Vortex (West End), Hay Fever (Haymarket Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It, which wowed audiences in London, New York and Los Angeles, and earned him an Ian Charleson Award nomination which is the British theatrical award to reward the best classical stage performances in Britain by actors aged under 30. Forthcoming feature films include British independent Summer in February in which he stars alongside Dominic Cooper and Emily Browning and which he also executive-produced and Amy Heckerling's Vamps with Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter and Sigourney Weaver (due out in Autumn 2012).

Mr. Kaufman is a two-time Tony Award®-nominee as author of 33 Variations, which he also directed on Broadway starring Jane Fonda, and as director of the Broadway production of I Am My Own Wife for which he won an Obie Award and also received Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel nominations. His play Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde earned him a Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway play as well as a Joe A. Callaway Award for Best Director. And his film of his play The Laramie Project earned him two Emmy nominations (writing and directing) as well as a National Board of Review Award and a Humanitas Prize. This production marks 17 years since the celebrated play was last seen on Broadway. The original production of The Heiress, suggested by the Henry James novel Washington Square, premiered on Broadway in 1947 at the Biltmore Theatre. The 1949 Academy Award winning movie version was adapted from the play by the Goetzes, and was directed by William Wyler, starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson.

The design team includes Derek McLane (sets), Albert Wolsky (costumes), David Lander (lighting), Peter Golub (original music) and Leon Rothenberg (sound).

Advance tickets will be available exclusively to American Express® Cardmembers beginning August 8, 2012 at 10am. Tickets go on-sale to the general public on August 27th. Tickets for The Heiress will be available by visiting Telecharge.com, calling (212) 239-6200 and at the box office of the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 W. 48th St. NYC). Ticket prices range from $50.00-$135.00. Group bookings are being accepted now. Please visit www.telecharge.com/groups or call Telecharge Group Sales at 800-432-7780.