Lily Rabe to Lead MISS JULIE at Geffen Playhouse; Opens 5/1

Tony nominee Lily Rabe (American Horror Story, Merchant of Venice) joins Broadway actress Laura Heisler (Lucille Lortel and Drama League nominee) and Logan Marshall-Green (Julie Taymor's Across the Universe) for Tony nominee Neil LaBute's world premiere adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie. The production is directed by Obie Winner Jo Bonney, who has directed the Geffen Playhouse productions of LaBute's Some Girl(s), The Break of Noon and Fat Pig. She also directed the theater's West Coast premiere production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.

Miss Julie begins performances at the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse on Tuesday, April 23, with the official opening on Wednesday, May 1.

Lily Rabe starred as Rosalind in As You Like It, directed by Daniel Sullivan, in Shakespeare in the Park, and also appeared on Broadway opposite Alan Rickman in Theresa Rebeck's Seminar, and opposite Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice which garnered her recent Tony nomination. She is also known for her work on the first two seasons of American Horror Story.

Heisler, who recently performed in Michael Golamco's world premiere of Build, also in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse, won Lucile Lortel and Drama League Award nominations for her work in Bathsheba Doran's Kin at Playwrights Horizons; she also appeared in Coram Boy on Broadway, and has many TV and film credits including on Grey's Anatomy, Bones, The Defenders, Numb3rs, Ugly Betty, and a recurring role on The Middle.

Logan Marshall-Green appeared in Adam Rapp's Hallway Trilogy: Nursing (Drama Desk Award nomination). He appeared in King Lear with Kevin Klein at The Public Theatre (Drama-League Award nomination), and off-Broadway in Greg Kotis' Pig Farm at the Roundabout Theatre, Dog Sees God (Lortel Award nomination) and Neil LaBute's The Distance from Here (Drama Desk Ensemble Award).

LaBute has set August Strindberg's classic about greed, sex and manipulation on Long Island just before the 1929 stock market crash. LaBute said, "I wanted this setting to be my own while still dealing faithfully with the themes and mores of the lives of these characters as they were first written. A cloud of desperation and despair will soon hang over the United States but tonight - in this kitchen that Strindberg conjured up 150 years ago - the lives of the three characters in Miss Julie will never be the same."

Strindberg's scandalous turn-of-the-century play, banned in Britain for nearly 50 years after its publication, chronicles the night-long flirtation and seduction between the wealthy lady of the house and one of her father's household employees. Featuring one of theatre's most commanding female characters, this world premiere adaptation couples provocateurs Strindberg and LaBute to capture the timeless consequences of passion and power.

Tickets are available in-person at the Geffen Playhouse box office, via phone at 310-208-5454 or online at www.geffenplayhouse.com.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos