Laila Robins Replaces Elizabeth Marvel in MTC's THAT FACE; Opens 5/18

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) has announced full casting for the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Polly Stenham's THAT FACE, directed by Sarah Benson (Blasted, Artistic Director of Soho Rep).

The cast will feature Christopher Abbott (Good Boys and True at Second Stage), Maïté Alina (Off-Broadway debut), Betty Gilpin (Good Boys and True and Boys' Life at Second Stage), Cristin Milioti (The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter at NYTW), Laila Robins (Frozen), and Victor Slezak (Salome).

THAT FACE will begin previews on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street) for a Tuesday, May 18, 2010 opening.

THAT FACE is a powerful and darkly comic look at an affluent family in freefall. Mia (Cristin Milioti) has been suspended from boarding school. Her brother, Henry (Christopher Abbott), has dropped out altogether. And Martha (Laila Robins), their mum, manipulates them all. Money can no longer fix their problems -- now it's up to them. This Olivier Award-nominated play from Britain's fastest-rising young playwright premieres in New York with the director of last season's acclaimed Blasted.

The creative team for THAT FACE includes David Zinn (Scenic and Costume Design), Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Design), Matt Tierney (Sound Design), David Brimmer (Fight Director) and Ben Furey (Dialect Coach).

Laila Robins replaces the previously announced Elizabeth Marvel.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. MTC productions have earned a total of 16 Tony Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. MTC has their Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and an Off-Broadway theatre at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Time Stands Still; Ruined; The American Plan; Top Girls; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin'.

For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

Tickets for THAT FACE are available via New York City Center Box Office (131 West 55th Street), CityTix® (212-581-1212) and www.nycitycenter.org.
Tickets for THAT FACE are $75.

Christopher Abbott (Henry). New York credits include Mouth to Mouth (New Group), Good Boys and True (Second Stage), The Happy Sad (Public/SPF), Playlist (Ars Nova). Television: "Nurse Jackie," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." Film: Snapshots.

MAÏTÉ ALINA (Alice). Regional credits include Esperanza Rising, Cephalopod, Marisol, A Room Embodied, Reckless, and Flesh and Blood. Television credits include "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

Betty Gilpin (Izzy) made her Off-Broadway debut in 2008 in Second Stage's production of Good Boys and True. This was followed shortly thereafter by a return to Second Stage in Howard Korder's Boys' Life. Last summer, she co-starred with Wendie Malick in Noah Haidle's two character play, What is the Cause of Thunder? at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her most recent projects include episodes of the new series Past Life, The Unusuals, Possible Side Effects, Fringe, New Amsterdam, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Medium. She also can be seen in roles in the films Death in Love, The Northern Kingdom and the DreamWorks feature Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree at Fordham College at Lincoln Center and lives in New York City.

Cristin Milioti (Mia). Credits include LCT3's Stunning, New York Theatre Workshop's The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, The Retributionists at Playwrights' Horizons, Crooked at the Women's Project, Some Americans Abroad at Second Stage, and Broadway's Coram Boy and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Cristin also recently starred in the upcoming film The Year of the Carnivore (which opened the Toronto International Film Festival), and has had recurring roles on "The Sopranos" and "The Unusuals."

Laila Robins (Martha) was seen on Broadway in Heartbreak House, the Tony-nominated play Frozen (Lucille Lortel Nomination), The Herbal Bed and The Real Thing. Off-Broadway credits include The Great War, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sore Throats (Lucille Lortel nomination), Tiny Alice, Mrs. Klein (for the national tour of Mrs. Klein she received a Joseph Jefferson Award and a Helen Hayes Nomination), The Merchant Of Venice (Calloway Award), The Extra Man, Bloody Poetry and The Film Society. Regional credits include The Three Sisters, A Streetcar Named Desire (1997 Jefferson Award for Best Actress), Noises Off (Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey), Hedda Gabler, Summer And Smoke, the World Premiere of Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues, Fool For Love, Fiction, Skylight, The Women and Lady From The Sea. She has done 10 plays with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and several summers at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Film credits include Welcome to Academia, Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, Multiple Sarcasms, August, The Good Shepherd, Jailbait, Things That Hang From Trees, Slippery Slope, Oxygen, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, An Innocent Man, Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael, True Crime, Female Perversions, and Searching For Paradise. Television credits include "Army Wives," "Bored To Death," "In Treatment," "God in America," "The Sopranos," "Sex And The City," "Law and Order: SVU," "Law and Order: CI," "Law and Order," "Third Watch," "The Book Of Daniel," "All My Children" and the series lead in "Gabriel's Fire" opposite James Earl Jones. Ms. Robins trained at the Yale School of Drama.

Victor Slezak (Hugh). Broadway: Salome (w/ Al Pacino), The Graduate, Jackie: An American Life, Suddenly Last Summer opposite Elizabeth Ashley, Any Given Day. Off-Broadway: Willie Holtzman's Something You Did and Sabina for Primary Stages, Neal LaBute's Things We Said Today (w/ Dana Delaney), Beauty on the Vine, Alan Ball's All That I Will Ever Be, Paul Rudnick's The Naked Truth, Horton Foote's The Widow Claire, Ghosts opposite Geraldine Page, The Hasty Heart, Talk Radio, Christopher Shinn's Other People, among others. Film: Salt, Bride Wars, Veronika Decides to Die, Happy Tears, The International, Taking Chance, The Notorious Bettie Paige, The Siege, The Bridges of Madison County, among others. Television: "The Good Wife," John Frankenheimer's "Path to War" for HBO, "The Ponder Heart," for PBS's American Masterpiece Series, "Law & Order," "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles," among others. Favorite regional roles include: Jamie Tyrone in Moon for the Misbegotten, Rakitin in Turgenev's A Month in the Country at the Long Wharf Theatre, Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest for Hartford Stage and Martin Dysart in Equus for The Berkshire Theatre Festival.

Photo Credit: Monica Simoes