Lenny Wolpe to Star in THE OUTSIDER at Paper Mill Playhouse; Cast, Creatives Announced!

Paper Mill Playhouse, recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, has announced today the cast and creative team for the East Coast premiere of the new play The Outsider by Paul Slade Smith, directed by David Esbjornson (Driving Miss Daisy).

Performances are set to begin Wednesday, January 24, 2018, at 7:30 p.m., for a limited run through Sunday, February 18, 2018, at Paper Mill Playhouse (22 Brookside Drive) in Millburn, NJ. Opening Night is Sunday evening, January 28, 2018, at 7:00 p.m.

In politics, the less you know, the higher you'll go! At once a razor-sharp satire and an inspirational tribute to democracy, The Outsider is a timely and hilarious send-up of modern American politics. In the midst of a political scandal, Ned Newley, the ultimate policy wonk, is unexpectedly thrust into the position of Governor. A complete unknown, with no political instincts and a paralyzing fear of public speaking, Ned seems destined to fail. But his political consultants see things a little differently: Ned might be the worst candidate to ever run for office. Unless the public is looking for... the worst candidate to ever run for office!

The cast features Kelley Curran (Present Laughter) as Rachel Parsons, Julia Duffy ("Newhart"/"Designing Women") as Paige Caldwell, Manoel Felciano (Sweeney Todd) as Dave Riley, Erin Noel Grennan ("Law & Order: SVU") as Louise Peakes, Mike Houston ("Orange is the New Black") as A.C. Petersen, Burke Moses (Beauty and the Beast) as Arthur Vance, and Lenny Wolpe (PMP's The Baker's Wife) as Ned Newley.

The production team includes set design by Michael Schweikardt, costume design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy, lighting design by Ben Stanton, hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe, and sound design by Randy Hansen. The production stage manager is Mark A. Stys. Casting is by Telsey + Company, Adam Caldwell, CSA, William Cantler, CSA and Karyn Casl, CSA.

The Outsider will be performed eight times a week, Wednesday through Sunday. The performance schedule is Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 1:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now starting at $34. Tickets may be purchased by calling 973.376.4343, at the Paper Mill Playhouse Box Office at 22 Brookside Drive in Millburn, or online at www.PaperMill.org. Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express accepted. Groups of 10 or more can receive up to a 40% discount on tickets and should call 973.315.1680. Students may order $23 rush tickets over the phone or in person at the Paper Mill Playhouse box office on the day of the performance. Paper Mill Playhouse's 2017/2018 season is proudly sponsored by Investors Bank.

Subscribe & Save: 3-show packages are available with outstanding benefits, including significant savings. To subscribe, call 973.379.3717, visit PaperMill.org or come to the Paper Mill Box Office.

Paper Mill Playhouse, a leader in accessibility, will offer audio-described performances for The Outsider on Saturday, February 17, 2018, at 1:30pm and Sunday, February 18, 2018, at 1:30pm. Prior to these performances at noon, the theater will offer free sensory seminars. Sensory seminars offer an opportunity for patrons with vision loss to hear a live, in-depth description of the production elements of the show and hands-on interaction with key sets, props, and costumes. There will be a sign-interpreted and open-captioned performance on Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 7:00pm.

Free Audience Enrichment Activities for THE OUTSIDER:

Conversation Club: Join us Thursday evenings, January 25, February 1, 8 and 15, one hour before curtain for an informal, informative gathering. You'll learn more about the performance you're about to see.

The Director's Viewpoint: One hour before curtain at 6:00pm on Wednesday, January 24, we host a pre-show discussion in the Renee Foosaner Art Gallery.

Q&A with the Cast: After the matinee on Saturday, February 17, stick around for a lively Q&A with cast members directly following the performance.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Kelley Curran (Rachel Parsons). Broadway: Present Laughter with Kevin Kline. Off Broadway: Sense & Sensibility and Peter Pan (Bedlam); The Dingdong (Pearl-Drama League Award nomination); 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (Red Bull-Callaway Award); Angels in America (Signature); The Atmosphere of Memory (Labyrinth); Henry V (New Victory); Knives and Spoons Go on the Right (59E59); and work with the Drama League, Shakespeare Society, and The Public Theater. Regional: Shakespeare Theatre Company of DC, Shakespeare & Company, Guthrie Theater, Portland Center Stage, The Acting Company. Film: The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot (executive producer John Sayles), Dear Santa. Additional honors: 2005 Princess Grace Award nomination, 2017 National Theatre Conference Emerging Professional Award.

Julia Duffy (Paige Caldwell). Paper Mill Playhouse debut. Broadway: Once in a Lifetime. Off Broadway: Rancho Viejo (Playwrights Horizons). Selected regional theater: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Huntington-IRNE Award nomination); The Little Foxes, The Heiress (Pasadena Playhouse); The Three Sisters, Curse of the Starving Class (St. Louis Rep); Sex and Education (Laguna Playhouse). Recent TV: "Looking," "Shameless," "Key & Peele," "Scream Queens," "American Housewife." Past TV and film credits include the Coen brothers' "Intolerable Cruelty," "The Blue and the Gray," "Romeo and Juliet" (PBS), "Designing Women," "The Mommies," "Wizards and Warriors." Favorite TV: "Newhart" (seven Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination). Author of the soon-to-be-released book Bad Auditions.

Manoel Felciano (Dave Riley). Broadway: Sweeney Todd (Tony nomination), Amélie, Disaster!, Brooklyn, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret. Off Broadway: Changeling (Red Bull), Trumpery (Atlantic, dir. David Esbjornson), Shockheaded Peter, Much Ado About Nothing (NYSF). Regional: Anastasia (Hartford); Robin Hood!, Twelfth Night (Old Globe); Terrence McNally's Mothers and Sons (world premiere); Side Show (La Jolla); The Exorcist with Brooke Shields (Geffen); Scorched, Tales of the City, Clybourne Park, Round and Round the Garden, Caucasian Chalk Circle, November, Jerry in Zoo Story, Rock 'n' Roll (A.C.T.); Elektra with Olympia Dukakis (Getty Villa); Tateh in Ragtime (Kennedy Center); Three Sisters (Williamstown, dir. Michael Greif); George in Sunday in the Park (dir. Jason Alexander). Workshops: Duncan Sheik, Elvis Costello. Film/TV: Uncertainty (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), "Elementary," "NCIS," "Trauma," "Life on Mars," "The Unusuals," soaps. Concerts: Ragtime (Lincoln Center), The World of Nick Adams with Jack Nicholson, Julia Roberts, Sean Penn (SFSO). Faculty member: Columbia MFA Acting. Training: BA, Yale; MFA, NYU Tisch Grad Acting.

Erin Noel Grennan (Louise Peakes). Paper Mill Playhouse debut. A recent transplant to NYC from Chicago, Erin's regional credits include Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Geva Theatre Center, Drury Lane, First Folio, Mercury Theater, BoarsHead, Circle Theatre, Theatre at the Center, seven seasons with Peninsula Players Theatre in Wisconsin, and the Gaiety Theatre in Ireland. She has had the privilege of originating roles in many new American plays, including Making God Laugh, Unnecessary Farce, The Tin Woman, A Real Lulu, Shady Business, Slow Floods, and The Outsider. Film/TV: Resurrecting McGinn(s), Friday Fires, recurring roles on "Law & Order: SVU," "Chicago Fire," and "Chicago Med." Among her umpteen commercials, she plays Ma in the current "Feed the Pig" campaign.

Mike Houston (A.C. Petersen) is thrilled to make his Paper Mill debut in this brilliant play while sharing the footlights with such an amazing cast! A graduate of the William Esper Studio and a founding member of The Collective NY, Mike recently wrapped production on the sixth season of the award-winning Netflix original series "Orange Is the New Black," reprising his role as Lee Dixon. Theater: C:10 Play Festival (2013-16, The Collective NY), Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (The Collective NY), Last Gas by Jon Cariani (Portland Stage Company). Film: Bridge of Spies, Deliver Us from Evil, The Drop, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Taking of Pelham 123. Other TV: "Sneaky Pete" (Amazon), Marvel's "Jessica Jones"(Netflix), "Boardwalk Empire" (HBO), "The Leftovers" (HBO), "Brotherhood" (Showtime).

Burke Moses (Arthur Vance) was last seen at Paper Mill in Thoroughly Modern Millie. He made his Broadway debut as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls and then went on to create the role of Gaston in the New York, Los Angeles, and West End productions of Disney's megahit Beauty and the Beast (Drama Desk nomination, Theatre World Award). Also on Broadway, he portrayed Fred Graham in Kiss Me, Kate and Heracles in Stephen Sondheim's The Frogs at Lincoln Center, and created the role of El Gallo in the Off Broadway revival of The Fantasticks. In Toronto, Mr. Moses played Captain Von Trapp in the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Mirvish production of The Sound of Music. Recent regional work found him at Arena Stage as The Music Man, Long Wharf Theatre (The Underpants), Denver Center (Unsinkable Molly Brown), and Goodspeed (City of Angels). Mr. Moses is author of Stanislavski Never Wore Tap Shoes: Musical Theater Acting Craft.

Lenny Wolpe (Ned Newley) appeared at Paper Mill in The Baker's Wife (the Baker), Gypsy (Herbie opposite Betty Buckley), Baby, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, and The 1940's Radio Hour. Broadway: Bullets Over Broadway, Wicked, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Sound of Music, Mayor, Into the Light, Onward Victoria, Copperfield. Off Broadway: Old Jews Telling Jokes, Marry Harry, New York Spring Spectacular at Radio City. National Tours: Wicked, Little Shop of Horrors, Forum, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific. Recent Regional: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Goodspeed), Max in The Producers (Maltz), Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank (KC Rep), Presto Change-O (Barrington), War of the Roses (Delaware Theatre). Regional: McCarter, Cape Playhouse, Pasadena, Bucks County, Westport, Pioneer, Muny, St Louis Rep, Denver Center, TUTS, Pittsburgh CLO, Sacramento, Hollywood Bowl. TV series regular: Baby Talk, You're the One. Nearly 100 guest spots including "L.A. Law," "ER," "Six Feet Under," "And the Band Played On," "Roseanne," "The Golden Girls," "Chappelle's Show," and more.

Paul Slade Smith (Playwright) is the author of three plays: The Outsider, Unnecessary Farce, and Hymn & Carol. The Outsider has had a single previous production-its 2015 world premiere at Peninsula Players Theatre, which received three Milwaukee theater awards, including best new play. Unnecessary Farce has had nearly 250 productions throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Great Britain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland (in German), and Iceland (in Icelandic). As an actor, Paul has appeared on Broadway in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland (original Broadway casts); in national tours of Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera; and regionally at American Repertory Theatre, Goodman, Steppenwolf, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

David Esbjornson (Director). Premieres: Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry (Broadway, London, Australia); Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? and The Play About the Baby; Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (Broadway); Resurrection Blues; world premieres of Tony Kushner's Angels in America and Homebody/Kabul; In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks; Christopher Hampton's Appomatox; Ariel Dorfman's Purgatorio; Neil Simon's Rose and Walsh; Tuesdays with Morrie; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; Red-Hot Patriot. Revivals: Glass Menagerie (Shanghai); A Few Good Men and Shawshank Redemption (London); Death of a Salesman (Dublin); Hamlet (TFANA); Measure for Measure and Much Ado About Nothing (NYSF); Lady from Dubuque, Mud, and Drowning (Signature); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Summer and Smoke (Guthrie); The Normal Heart (Public); Endgame, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, and The Entertainer (CSC). David has served as artistic director of Classic Stage Company in NYC and Seattle Repertory Theatre, and he currently is chair of Rutgers Theater Conservatory.

Michael Schweikardt (Scenic Design). Productions at Paper Mill include A Comedy of Tenors, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Thoroughly Modern Millie, South Pacific, and Lost in Yonkers. Recent local credits include more than 20 productions with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, including last season's Equivocation, and critically acclaimed productions of La Cage aux Folles, Fiddler on the Roof, The Most Happy Fella, Carousel, and Show Boat for Goodspeed Musicals. National tours include James Taylor's One Man Band, Ella, and Motherhood: The Musical. International productions include Phantom and Marie Antoinette for EMK Productions in Seoul, South Korea.

Elizabeth Hope Clancy (Costume Design). Broadway: A Christmas Story (also Paper Mill Playhouse), Passing Strange, The Goat, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan. International: The Glass Menagerie (Shanghai), A Few Good Men (London), Death of a Salesman (Dublin). Off Broadway: The Lady from Dubuque, The Oldest Profession, The Last of the Thorntons (Signature Theatre); Measure for Measure (Shakespeare in the Park); Hamlet (TFANA); In the Blood, A Dybbuk (Public); Memory House, Recent Tragic Events, The Wax (Playwrights Horizons); Waiting for Godot, Endgame, The Entertainer (CSC). Regional: City Theatre, Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Intiman, Huntington, Mark Taper, OSF, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Geffen, and others.

Ben Stanton (Lighting Design). Paper Mill: Godspell, Little Shop of Horrors. Broadway: Junk, Six Degrees of Separation, Fully Committed, Deaf West's Spring Awakening (Tony nomination), Fun Home (Tony nomination), An Enemy of the People, Seminar. Recent Off Broadway: Fiasco Theater's Twelfth Night (CSC); Napoli, Brooklyn (Roundabout); Derren Brown: Secret (Atlantic Theater); Marjorie Prime, The Christians (Playwrights Horizons); Yen, The Legend of Georgia McBride, The Nether (MCC); Angels in America (Signature); Incognito, Murder Ballad (MTC); Belleville (NYTW); Into the Woods (Delacorte); The Whipping Man (MTC-Lortel Award). Concert designs: Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stevens, The National. Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design.

Charles G. LaPointe (Hair and Wig Design). Prior Paper Mill Playhouse productions include: Newsies; The Hunchback of Notre Dame and 1776. Over 90 Broadway shows including: Hamilton; Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; Anastasia; The Band's Visit; SpongeBob SquarePants; Amélie; Motown the Musical; Memphis: The Musical; Allegiance; A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder; The Color Purple; Doctor Zhivago; Of Mice and Men; Violet; Sideshow; The Elephant Man; After Midnight; Clybourne Park; Newsies; Jekyll and Hyde; The Mountaintop; Superior Donuts; Bonnie and Clyde; In the Heights. Television: Television: The Wiz Live! (Emmy Award Nomination); Bluebloods; American Crime; Maddoff; Hairspray.

Randy Hansen (Sound Design). Over a wonderful career, Randy has designed sound for more than 130 musicals and 40 plays. Many memorable moments include working with the opera star Jessye Norman, the Indianapolis and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Having recently opened a national tour of The Little Mermaid that is touring throughout 2017, Randy is thrilled to be back at Paper Mill for The Outsider. In New York City he was the president of Audible Difference, Inc., a sound design company that over the past 30 years has served the fashion industry in New York and Paris.

Telsey + Company (Casting). Broadway/Tours: SpongeBob SquarePants; Once on This Island; The Parisian Woman; M. Butterfly; Anastasia; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Hello, Dolly!; Come from Away; Waitress; Hamilton; Kinky Boots; Wicked; On Your Feet!; Something Rotten!; The King and I; An American in Paris. Off Broadway: Sweeney Todd, Atlantic, Classic Stage, MCC, Second Stage. Regional: Alley, Deaf West, Goodman, Hartford Stage, La Jolla, McCarter, New York Stage and Film, Pasadena Playhouse, Wallis Annenberg Center, Williamstown. Film: Miss Sloane, Into the Woods, Margin Call, Rachel Getting Married, Across the Universe, Camp, Pieces of April. TV: This Is Us, NCIS: New Orleans, House of Cards, Rise, I'm Dying Up Here, One Day at a Time, Graves, Atypical, commercials.

Paper Mill Playhouse, a not-for-profit arts organization under the direction of Mark S. Hoebee (Producing Artistic Director) and Todd Schmidt (Managing Director) and recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is one of the country's leading regional theaters. Paper Mill Playhouse programs are made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Paper Mill Playhouse is a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the Council of Stock Theatres, and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. For additional information, visit www.papermill.org.