Meet the Cast of THE WAVERLY GALLERY- Now in Previews!

Preview performances begin tonight, Tuesday, September 25, for The Waverly Gallery on Broadway! The show is slated for an official opening night of Thursday, October 25, 2018.

A powerfully poignant and often hilarious play, The Waverly Gallery is about the final years of a generous, chatty, and feisty grandmother's final battle against Alzheimer's disease. Gladys is an old-school lefty and social activist and longtime owner of a small art gallery in Greenwich Village. The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson. More than a memory play, The Waverly Gallery captures the humor and strength of a family in the face of crisis.

Directed by Drama Desk and Obie Award winner Lila Neugebauer (in her Broadway debut), the cast will include Grammy Award winner and Academy and Golden Globe Award nominee, Elaine May, Academy Award nominee Lucas Hedges and, in his third Lonergan play, Michael Cera and Tony Award-winner Joan Allen.

Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!

Elaine May (Gladys Green): Elaine May was a founding member of the improvisational theater groups the Compass Players and The Second City. She first came to national prominence with Nichols and May, her improvisational comedy duo with Mike Nichols, which became an immediate and overnight sensation, and stands as one of the most iconic comedy teams in history. Their hit recordings include the Grammy Award-winning chart-topping classic, An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Improvisations to Music, Mike Nichols and Elaine May Examine Doctors, and In Retrospect; and their work has influenced many of the greatest comedians of our time, including Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and the "Saturday Night Live" Not Ready for Prime Time Players. By perfecting the art of improvisation and introducing it to the public through their appearances in clubs and on television and radio, Nichols and May forever changed the face of comedy, and our collective sense of humor. Ms. May's select writing credits include the films The Birdcage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane (reuniting her with Mike Nichols), Heaven Can Wait, Wolf, Reds, Primary Colors, A New Leaf, and Ishtar (she also directed the latter two films). Ms. May also directed the hit 1972 film, The Heartbreak Kid. The Waverly Gallery marks Elaine May's first appearance on Broadway since her 1960 debut in An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May.

Lucas Hedges (Daniel Reed): Lucas Hedges made his stage debut in MCC Theater's Off-Broadway production of Yen. An Academy Award nominee for his role in Kenneth Lonergan's Academy Award-winning Manchester by the Sea, Hedges was most recently seen in two of last year's Academy Award Best Picture nominated films, Greta Gerwig's directorial debut, Lady Bird, and Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, opposite Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. Hedges received Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for both of those roles. Additional film credits include Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Labor Day, The Zero Theorem, Kill the Messenger, and Arthur Newman. On television Hedges starred in the NBC event series, "The Slap." Upcoming projects include Focus Features' Boy Erased, alongside Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman and Joel Edgerton and Ben Is Back, opposite Julia Roberts.

Michael Cera (Don Bowman): Michael Cera made his Broadway debut in Kenneth Lonergan's award-winning play This Is Our Youth, following a sold-out and critically acclaimed run at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater, and was recently seen on Broadway in Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, for which he received a 2018 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Cera's television work includes the role of George-Michael Bluth in the Emmy Award-winning Fox series "Arrested Development." His film credits include the blockbusters Superbad and Juno, as well as Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Youth in Revolt, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and This is the End. Most recently, Cera was heard in the animated featuresSausage Party and The LEGO Batman Movie.

Joan Allen (Ellen Fine): Joan Allen received a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lanford Wilson's Burn This, and was Tony-nominated for The Heidi Chronicles. Her most recent Broadway appearance was in Impressionism. Off-Broadway: Delores, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, and Steppenwolf's And a Nightingale Sang..., for which she received Clarence Derwent, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World Awards. An original member of Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Allen performed in many of the company's productions, including The Wheel, Earthly Possessions, Reckless, A Lesson from Aloes, Balm in Gilead, and Of Mice and Men. Film: Room, Oliver Stone's Nixon (Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations) The Crucible (Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations), The Contender (Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Independent Spirit Award nominations), The Ice Storm, Yes, The Bourne Ultimatum, A Good Marriage, The Bourne Supremacy, The Notebook, Compromising Positions, Peggy Sue Got Married, Manhunter, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Ethan Frome, and The Upside of Anger. Television: "The Family" (ABC), "The Killing" (Netflix), "Luck" (HBO), the title character and executive producer for "Georgia O'Keefe" (Lifetime), for which she earned nominations for the Emmy Award, SAG Award and Golden Globe Award as both Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Made for Television Movie, and "The Mists of Avalon" (TNT), for which she was Emmy Award nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie.

David Cromer (Howard Fine): David Cromer is a New York-based director and actor. He appeared on Broadway as Karl Lindner in the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, and Off-Broadway as the Stage Manager in Our Town, which he also directed, at the Barrow Street Theatre. He appeared in the HBO series "The Newsroom," the Showtime series "Billions," and in the motion picture The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). As a director, his New York credits include The Band's Visit (2018 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, Ethel Barrymore Theatre); the Broadway revivals of Brighton Beach Memoirs and The House of Blue Leaves; The Treasurer (Playwrights Horizons); Man from Nebraska (Second Stage Theatre); The Effect, Orson's Shadow, and Tribes (Barrow Street Theatre); Women or Nothing(Atlantic Theater Company); Really Really (MCC Theater); When the Rain Stops Fallingand Nikolai and the Others (Lincoln Center Theater); and Adding Machine (Minetta Lane Theatre). Other directing credits include Come Back, Little Sheba (Huntington Theatre Company); The Sound Inside (Williamstown Theatre Festival); and Our Townin London, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Kansas City. Cromer has received a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, three Obie Awards, three Lucille Lortel Awards, a Joe A. Callaway Award, four Jeff Awards, and in 2010 was made a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos