Laura Benanti Joins LuPone, Scott & Stokes Mitchell et al. in LCT's 'WOMEN ON THE VERGE'

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop, Artistic Director and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer) has announced that Laura Benanti will join De'Adre Aziza, Danny Burstein, Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mary Beth Peil and Sherie Rene Scott in the cast of its upcoming production of the new musical WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, based on the film by Pedro Almodóvar, with a book by Jeffrey Lane, music and lyrics by David Yazbek and direction by Bartlett Sher. This world premiere production will begin previews on Saturday, October 2 at 8pm and open on Thursday, November 4 at 6:45pm on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre (111 W. 44 Street).

Based on Pedro Almodóvar's internationally acclaimed 1988 film, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN is set in late 20th-century Madrid and tells the story of the intertwining lives of a group of women (Sherie Rene Scott, De'Adre Aziza, Laura Benanti, Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Patti LuPone) whose relationships with men lead to a tumultuous 48 hours of love, confusion and passion.

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN will have choreography by Christopher Gattelli, musical direction by Jim Abbott, sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Brian MacDevitt and sound by Scott Lehrer.

Book writer Jeffrey Lane collaborated with David Yazbek on the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The winner of five Emmy Awards, three Writers Guild Awards , two Peabody Awards and a Golden Globe Award, he is best known for his work on such television programs as Mad About You, Ryan's Hope, Lou Grant and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. Composer-lyricist David Yazbek made his Broadway and musical theater debuts with The Full Monty, for which he earned Tony and Grammy nominations and a Drama Desk Award. Director Bartlett Sher, Resident Director of Lincoln Center Theater, won the Tony Award for his direction of LCT's production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC. He was nominated for Tony Awards for the LCT productions of The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing! and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Former Artistic Director of Seattle's Intiman Theatre, his other recent New York credits include A Prayer for My Enemy at Playwrights Horizons and the Metropolitan Opera productions of The Barber of Seville and The Tales of Hoffman.

Lincoln Center Theater is currently presenting the Tony Award winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific in the Vivian Beaumont Theater where it will end its record-breaking run on Sunday, August 22.

Next season, in addition to WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, Lincoln Center Theater will be producing the world premieres of John Guare's A Free Man of Color, directed by George C. Wolfe, (beginning Thursday, October 21) in the Vivian Beaumont Theater and Jon Robin Baitz' Other Desert Cities, directed by Joe Mantello, (beginning Thursday, December 16) in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, the American premiere of the National Theatre of Great Britain's critically acclaimed production of War Horse (beginning Tuesday, March 15) in the Vivian Beaumont Theater and the New York premiere of A Minister's Wife, a new musical version of Shaw's Candida (beginning Thursday, April 7) in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. LCT3 will present three productions next season at The Duke on 42nd Street including the world premieres of The Coward, a new play by Nick Jones, directed by Sam Gold (November 8 - December 4) and When I Come To Die, by Nathan Louis Jackson, directed by Thomas Kail (January 31 - February 26).

Laura Benanti LCT: In The Next Room or the vibrator play (Outer Critics Circle nomination). Broadway: Gypsy (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards), Nine (Outer Critics Circle nomindation), Into the Woods (Tony, Drama Desk, LA Ovation nominations), Swing (Tony nomination), Maria in West Side Story, The Wedding Singer. Off-Broadway: Chris Durang's Why TortureIs Wrong ... (Public), Wonderful Town, Gypsy (both at City Center Encores!), Time and Again.