Justin Bartha & Elizabeth Reaser to Lead World Premiere of PERMISSION at MCC

MCC THEATER has announced the cast for the world premiere of Robert Askins' Permission: stage and screen star Justin Bartha, of Broadway's Lend Me A Tenor, Off-Broadway's All New People and the blockbuster film The Hangover; Twilight and "Grey's Anatomy" Emmy-nominated star Elizabeth Reaser, returning to MCC following her critically acclaimed performance in this fall's The Money Shot; and theater regulars Nicole Lowrance, Talene Monahon, and Lucas Near-Verbrugghe. Permission is set for April 29 - June 7, 2015 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, with an official opening night on Tuesday, May 19th. For more information, please visit www.mcctheater.org.

As previously announced, 2-time Tony Award nominee Alex Timbers directs Permission, the new play from Robert Askins, who was last seen at MCC with the smash hit production of Hand to God-which is now premiering on Broadway at The Booth Theatre with an opening night set for Tuesday, April 7th.

In Permission, Eric and Cyndy are looking for some direction. They've decided to follow the lead of their friends Zach and Shelley and make the real life practice of Christian Domestic Discipline the foundation of their marriage. But restructuring their lives and their union according to role play and a new moral code upends everything they knew--and took for granted--about one another, their friends, and more importantly, who really holds the power.

MCC Theater - founded in 1986 as Manhattan Class Company - is driven by a mission to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would. Led by Artistic Directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, and Executive Director Blake West, MCC fulfills its mission by producing new work that challenges artists and rewards audiences, and by nurturing the development of playwrights and students through a variety of literary and education programs that enable nearly 1,200 New York City high school students to find - and use - their own unique voice each year through the creation and performance of original theater pieces. MCC currently produces its annual season at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) and will open its own two-theater complex on West 52nd Street and 10th Avenue in 2017. Notable productions include the recent hits Punk Rock; Hand to God; Small Engine Repair; The Village Bike; The Other Place; Really Really; The Submission, winner of the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for new American plays; The Pride; Fifty Words; Nixon's Nixon; The Grey Zone; the Tony Award-winning Frozen; the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit; the re-imagined production of the musical Carrie; and eight plays by Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute, including Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Pretty and Reasons to Be Happy.

Photo by Walter McBride