Lilli Cooper, Chuck Cooper, Major Attaway and More Join Keen Company's ARSENIC & OLD LACE Benefit Reading

Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein today announced additional cast members for the Gala Benefit Reading of the beloved classic comedy Arsenic & Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, directed by Mr. Silverstein featuring an all-star cast. The one night only event in celebration of Keen's 20th anniversary will take place Monday, February 24th at 7 PM at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues).

Lilli Cooper (Tootsie - Tony Award nomination; tick, tick...BOOM! - Keen Company; Broadway: SpongeBob Squarepants, Wicked, Spring Awakening); Chuck Cooper (Broadway: The Life - Tony Award; Prince of Broadway, Choir Boy, Finian's Rainbow, Romeo and Juliet, Caroline or Change, Act One, Chicago; Off-Bway: Choir Boy - Drama Desk Award nomination; The Piano Lesson - Lortel Award, Drama Desk Award nomination); Major Attaway (Broadway: the Genie in Disney's Aladdin); Hal Robinson (The Old Boy, I Never Sang For My Father - Keen Company; Broadway: The People in the Picture, Cabaret, Grand Hotel); Reg Rogers (Broadway: Tootsie - Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, The Iceman Cometh, Present Laughter, You Can't Take It With You, A Free Man of Color, The Royal Family - Outer Critics Circle Award nomination); Jay Russell (Travels with My Aunt - Keen Company; Broadway: The Play What I Wrote, End of the Rainbow; Off-Bway: Our Town, The Price of Thomas Scott, Come Back Little Sheba, The Normal Heart); and Kyle Sherman (Ordinary Days - Keen Company) join the previously announced Kathleen Chalfant as Abby (Angels in America - Tony Award nomination; Wit - Outer Circle Critics, Drama Desk, Obie, Lucille Lortel Awards; Keen's A Walk in the Woods - Drama Desk Award nomination; 2018 Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement), Marsha Mason as Martha (four-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actress: Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two, Only When I Laugh; Keen's I Never Sang for My Father), and Michael Urie as the drama critic Mortimer (Torch Song, Buyer & Cellar - Drama Desk Award; The Temperamentals - Lucille Lortel Award, Theater World Award; Homos, Or Everyone in America - Obie Award). Even more casting will be announced shortly.

This marks the first time father & daughter Broadway stars Chuck & Lilli Cooper are appearing on stage together, playing father and daughter (Elaine Harper and Reverend Harper).

In Arsenic and Old Lace, we meet two charming but not so innocent spinsters who have been poisoning lonely old men, their brother who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt, their nephew who looks strangely like Boris Karloff, and poor Mortimer who does his best to control his family's antics just long enough to announce his engagement.

"Let's not exaggerate. At some time there may have been a funnier murder charade than Arsenic and Old Lace, which was acted at the Fulton last evening. But the supposition is purely academic. For Joseph Kesselring has written one so funny that none of us will ever forget it," said Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times upon its 1941 opening.

Keen Company creates theater that provokes identification, reflection, and emotional connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, we tell wholehearted stories about people striving to do their best and the decisive moments that change us. Keen has been honored with eleven Drama Desk nominations, two Drama Desk Awards, two Drama League nominations, and two Obie Awards.

The performance will be at Theatre 3 of Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues). Tickets will be $100, $150 (Premium Seating), $250 (Premium Seating with post show toast & meet the cast).

To purchase tickets to Arsenic & Old Lace, visit the Theatre Row Box Office (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues), order online at Telecharge.com, or order by phone at 212-239-6200.

For more information, visit KeenCompany.org.