Manhattan Theatre Club to Include Matt Charman's REGRETS IN 2011-12 Season

Manhattan Theatre Club has announced the complete 2011-2012 theatrical season of six productions including the news that REGRETS, a new play by rising young British playwright Matt Charman will have its world premiere in spring 2012 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).

At MTC's Broadway theatre, the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street), MTC will produce: the Broadway premiere of VENUS IN FUR by David Ives, directed by Walter Bobbie starring Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy; the Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play WIT by Margaret Edson, directed by Lynne Meadow starring Cynthia Nixon; and the world premiere of THE COLUMNIST by David Auburn, directed by Daniel Sullivan starring John Lithgow.

At New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street), led by Artistic Producer Mandy Greenfield, in addition to REGRETS, the company will produce: WE LIVE HERE, a world premiere play by Zoe Kazan, directed by Sam Gold, featuring Mark Blum, Jessica Collins, Betty Gilpin, Amy Irving, Oscar Isaac and Jeremy Shamos; and CLOSE UP SPACE, a world premiere play by Molly Smith Metzler, directed by Leigh Silverman, featuring Michael Chernus and David Hyde Pierce.

MTC'S Samuel J. Friedman THEATRE
Venus in Fur
Broadway Premiere Play by David Ives
Directed by Walter Bobbie
Starring Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy

Previews begin: Thursday, October 13, 2011
Opening Night: Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Strictly Limited 10 Week Engagement through Sunday, December 18, 2011

Critically acclaimed as "90 minutes of good, kinky, fun!" by The New York Times, VENUS IN FUR makes its Broadway premiere at MTC. Vanda (Tony Award nominee Nina Arianda) is a preternaturally talented young actress determined to land the lead in Thomas' (Emmy Award nominee Hugh Dancy) new play based on the classic erotic novel, Venus in Fur. Her emotionally charged audition for the gifted but demanding playwright/director becomes an electrifying game of cat and mouse blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, seduction and power, love and sex. This dazzling new play is written by theatrical mastermind David Ives, and directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie.

VENUS IN FUR is produced on Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer) by special arrangement with Jon B. Platt, Scott Landis and Classic Stage Company.

Hugh Dancy is appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association. The Producers gratefully acknowledge Actors' Equity Association for its assistance of this production.

MTC'S Samuel J. Friedman THEATRE
Wit
Broadway Debut of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Play by Margaret Edson
Directed by Lynne Meadow
Starring Cynthia Nixon

Previews begin: Thursday, January 5, 2012
Opening Night: Thursday, January 26, 2012

Exquisitely written, affecting and often humorous, WIT follows a brilliant and exacting poetry professor (Cynthia Nixon) as she undergoes experimental treatment for cancer. A scholar who devoted her life to academia, she must now face the irony and injustice of becoming the subject of research.

Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning WIT premiered Off-Broadway in 1998 and will receive its Broadway debut under the direction of MTC's award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow. Tony and Emmy Award winner Cynthia Nixon returns to Manhattan Theatre Club following her Tony Award-winning performance in Rabbit Hole.

MTC'S Samuel J. Friedman THEATRE
The Columnist
World Premiere Play by David Auburn
Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Starring John Lithgow

Previews begin: Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Opening Night: Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Columnists are kings in midcentury America and Joseph Alsop (John Lithgow) wears the crown. Joe is beloved, feared and courted in equal measure by the Washington political world at whose center he sits. But as the ‘60s dawn and America undergoes dizzying change, the intense political drama Joe is embroiled in becomes deeply personal as well.

David Auburn, whose Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning Proof dazzled audiences and critics alike, returns to MTC with this fascinating new work directed by his Proof collaborator Daniel Sullivan and starring two-time Tony and five-time Emmy winner John Lithgow as Joseph Alsop.

Lead support for THE COLUMNIST is provided by MTC's Producing Fund Partner, Andrew Martin-Weber. Additional support for THE COLUMNIST is provided by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. THE COLUMNIST is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for supporting new American plays at Manhattan Theatre Club.

MTC AT NEW YORK City Center - STAGE I
We Live Here
World Premiere Play by Zoe Kazan
Directed by Sam Gold
Featuring Mark Blum, Jessica Collins, Betty Gilpin, Amy Irving, Oscar Isaac, Jeremy Shamos

Previews begin: Thursday, September 22, 2011
Opening Night: Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Allie Bateman's wedding is Sunday. When Dinah, her precocious younger sister, returns to their parents' home for the festivities, she brings more than anyone expected: a new boyfriend, whose hidden history resurrects passions and painful memories for the whole family. Over one emotionally charged weekend, the Batemans must acknowledge and accept loss to gain hope for regeneration.

Zoe Kazan, one of New York's most acclaimed young actors, returns to Manhattan Theatre Club for her New York playwriting debut with this world premiere MTC-commissioned play - an incisive and beautifully rendered portrait of a contemporary family coming together through grief and celebration under the direction of Obie Award winner Sam Gold.

The production will feature Mark Blum (After the Revolution, Twelve Angry Men), Jessica Collins (AMC's "Rubicon," Pygmalion), Betty Gilpin (MTC's That Face, The Language Archive), Amy Irving (The Coast of Utopia, Adam), Oscar Isaac (Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, MTC's Beauty of the Father) and Jeremy Shamos (Clybourne Park, MTC's Reckless).

WE LIVE HERE was commissioned by MTC through the Bank of America New American Play Program. WE LIVE HERE is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award.

MTC AT NEW YORK City Center - STAGE I
Close Up Space
World Premiere Play by Molly Smith METZLER
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Featuring Michael Chernus, David Hyde Pierce

Previews begin: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Opening Night: Monday, December 19, 2011

Tony Award and four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce brings his signature wit back to the MTC stage as Paul Barrow, an obsessive book editor on a major deadline. With an assistant (Michael Chernus) who's been camping in the office, a famous author threatening to bail on him and an intern who is no help at all, Paul's just about had it! But when his fiery daughter shows up and lambasts him in Russian, Paul faces a glaring personal error that can't be corrected with red ink. Leigh Silverman (Well, In the Wake, From Up Here) returns to MTC to direct this funny and poignant new play about how hard it can be to communicate... in any language.

Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for supporting new American plays at Manhattan Theatre Club.

MTC AT NEW YORK City Center - STAGE I
Regrets
World Premiere Play by MATT CHARMAN

Previews begin: Thursday, March 1, 2012
Opening Night: Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Matt Charman, Britain's fastest-rising young playwright, makes his New York debut at MTC with this world-premiere play.
Caleb Farley is the youngest man ever to show up at Mrs. Duke's cabins, a ramshackle retreat in the Nevada desert and one of the few places men can go to secure a quick divorce in 1950s America. Caleb claims he fled his Hollywood home for the same reason as the other men in camp - to shed the lives and wives they've known, and loved, to begin anew. But in an era of heightened fears and political distrust, accusations that Caleb is hiding more than just a broken heart test each man's loyalty - to country and to one another.

This fascinating new drama is an uncommon tale of friendship, loss and finding the courage of one's convictions.

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. Over the past three decades, MTC productions have earned a total of 17 Tony Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and a theatre at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; The American Plan; 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.