Meet the Cast of SUMMER, 1976; Beginning Previews Tonight!

Summer, 1976 officially begins previews tonight, April 4, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Four-time Emmy Award winner & Academy Award nominee Laura Linney (My Name Is Lucy Barton, Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes) and Tony nominee Jessica Hecht (The Assembled Parties) return to Broadway in Summer, 1976- a new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and fellow MTC alum David Auburn (Proof, The Columnist).

This deeply moving, insightful piece is about connection, memories, and the small moments that can change the course of our lives. Over one fateful summer, an unlikely friendship develops between Diana (Linney), a fiercely iconoclastic artist and single mom, and Alice (Hecht), a free-spirited yet naive young housewife. As the Bicentennial is celebrated across the country, these two young women in Ohio navigate motherhood, ambition, and intimacy, and help each other discover their own independence.

Meet the cast below!

Laura Linney - Diana

In 2018, Laura made her London theatre debut in Richard Eyre's My Name Is Lucy Barton, the stage play adapted from the Elizabeth Strout novel of the same name, which then made its Broadway debut at Manhattan Theatre Club to rave reviews and her Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Play.

Other Broadway credits include Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, Time Stands Still and Sight Unseen, all at MTC; Arthur Miller's The Crucible, directed by Richard Eyre opposite Liam Neeson, Six Degrees of Separation, Honour, Uncle Vanya, Les Liaisons, Dangereuses, Holiday and The Seagull.

For her role as Wendy Byrde in Ozark on Netflix, staring opposite Jason Bateman, she recently received her seventh Emmy Award® nomination. Upcoming is The Miracle Club, where she is set to star opposite Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates and Searchlight's Suncoast, opposite Woody Harrelson and Nico Parker.

Laura's numerous film credits include Falling, The Roads Not Taken, The Dinner, Nocturnal Animals, Sully, Genius, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, You Can Count On Me, Kinsey, The Savages, The Fifth Estate, Hyde Park On Hudson, The Squid And The Whale, Mystic River, Absolute Power, The Truman Show, Primal Fear, The Mothman Prophecies, Love Actually, P.S., The House Of Mirth, The Details and Congo, among many others.

Laura starred in and served as an executive producer for the Showtime Series The Big C for four seasons, for which she won a few awards. She also won multiple awards for her portrayal of Abigail Adams in the HBO miniseries John Adams directed by Tom Hooper. Laura served as an executive producer and starred in the highly anticipated Netflix revival of Tales of the City. She appeared as Kelsey Grammer's final girlfriend in the last six episodes of Frasier, was directed by Stanley Donen in Love Letters, and starred opposite Joanne Woodward in Blind Spot.

Linney has been nominated three times for an Academy Award, five times for a Tony Award, eight times for a SAG award, once for a BAFTA Award and seven times for a Golden Globe. She has won one Screen Actors Guild Award, one National Board of Review Award, two Golden Globes and four Emmy Awards. She holds two honorary Doctorates from her alma maters, Brown University and The Juilliard School.

Jessica Hecht - Alice

Jessica Hecht received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance in the Netflix series "Special". She was been seen on television in the limited series "Super Pumped" and "The Loudest Voice" and in her recurring roles in "The Sinner"," Dickinson", 'The Boys", and "Succession". She is also recognizable to television audiences as Susan Bunch on the iconic television series "Friends" and Gretchen Schwarz on "Breaking Bad." She has played memorable roles on "Bored to Death", "High Maintenance", "Falling Water", "The Single Guy," and "Red Oaks". Her film performances include A+, Anesthesia, J. Edgar, The Grey Zone, The Sitter, My Soul To Take, Dan In Real Life, Sideways, The Atlantic City Story and The Sunlit Night. An acclaimed stage actress, Hecht has appeared on Broadway in productions of The Price opposite Mark Ruffalo, Fiddler on the Roof opposite Danny Burstein, The Assembled Parties opposite Judith Light, Harvey opposite Jim Parsons, After the Fall opposite Carla Gugino, The Last Night of Ballyhoo opposite Paul Rudd, Brighton Beach Memoirs opposite Laurie Metcalf, Julius Caesar opposite Denzel Washington, and A View From the Bridge opposite Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in King Lear opposite John Lithgow and Annette Bening, Stage Kiss opposite Sandra Oh, Three Sisters opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, and at Lincoln Center Theater in Admissions for which she received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination and an Obie Award.

Judith Lightfoot Clarke - u/s Diana

Broadway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Casa Valentina (Manhattan Theatre Club). Off Broadway: Linda (MTC), Eve-olution (Cherry Lane), Three Travelers, (St. Clement's), The Normal Heart (Public Theatre), Communicating Doors (Variety Arts), Hamlet (Kaufman). Regional: Romeo & Juliet (The Shakespeare Theatre); Macbeth (Arden), The Graduate (Ivoryton) and theatres including The Alley, Cincinnati Playhouse, Old Globe, People's Light, Merrimack Rep, Syracuse Rep, Capital Rep, Indiana Rep, Wilma and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Film includes How to Be Single, and Killer. Television includes: "Unforgettable", "Forever", "Outlaw", "Law & Order", "L&O, SVU", "New Amsterdam" and "Madame Secretary". Graduate of The College of William & Mary.

Finnerty Steeves - u/s Alice

Broadway: Brighton Beach Memoirs/ Broadway Bound (Nederlander Theatre). Off-Broadway: The White Chip (59E59), Dot (Vineyard Theater), Almost Maine (Daryl Roth Theater), and the Drama Desk nominated production of Lost in Yonkers (TACT). Regional: American Conservatory Theater, The Guthrie, A.R.T. (Elliot Norton Award for her performance as Ms. Calvin in The Shape She Makes) TV/Film: "The Other Two", "Blue Bloods", "The Blacklist", "Orange Is The New Black" "Bored To Death" "Sopranos", Bad Education, Morning Glory and upcoming La Cocina. Finnerty wrote, produced, and starred in the award-winning feature film before/during/after released by Gravitas Ventures. www.finnertysteeves.com

Photo Credit: Manhattan Theatre Club