Oscar Winner Marlee Matlin Will Make Broadway Debut in Deaf West Theatre's SPRING AWAKENING

BroadwayWorld has confirmed that Academy and Golden Globe Award winner and Emmy Award nominee Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God, "The West Wing," "Switched at Birth") will make her Broadway debut in the upcoming production of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening, directed by Michael Arden.

Matlin said, "It's been 30 years since I had the opportunity to be part of the groundbreaking Children of a Lesser God and I couldn't be more proud and honored to have been asked to join Deaf West Theatre's innovative revival of Spring Awakening on Broadway."

Matlin is nearly thirty years into a successful acting career that includes work on both film and television. She has written four books, competed on the sixth season of "Dancing with the Stars," and has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. An active advocate for the Deaf community, she is to date the only deaf performer to win an Academy Award, for her debut film performance in Children of a Lesser God (1986), the first film since the 1926 silent film You'd Be Surprised to feature a deaf actor in a major role.

Additional casting will be announced shortly.

Spring Awakening, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2007, will play a strictly limited Broadway engagement at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47th Street) with previews beginning on Tuesday, September 8 and opening night set for Sunday, September 27. The show will run 18 weeks only, through Saturday, January 9, with no extension possible. It will be performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and spoken and sung in English by a cast of 27. Deaf West Theatre was last represented on Broadway with the triumphant production of Big River in 2003.

Tickets are now on sale at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 877-250-2929. The Brooks Atkinson Theatre box office will open on Monday, August 17.

Deaf West Theatre's innovative production of Spring Awakening recently completed an extended, critically-acclaimed engagement at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles where the production was expanded from its original, sold-out run at the Rosenthal Theatre in downtown L.A. The Los Angeles Times called Spring Awakening "an emotional triumph," and said that it "awakens us to the dormant possibilities of this musical, with all the goose-bumps and teardrops to prove it. This is a show for anyone who wants to see a contemporary American musical superbly done."

The Hollywood Reporter said Spring Awakening has "exceptional performances, inspired staging and brilliant use of sign language."

BroadwayWorld.com raved that Deaf West's production is "unlike any production of Spring Awakening I've ever seen."

Spring Awakening, with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik, is directed by Michael Arden and choreographed by Spencer Liff. The creative team includes Dane Laffrey (scenic and costume design), Ben Stanton (lighting design), Gareth Owen (sound design), and Lucy Mackinnon (projection design). New York casting by Telsey + Company/Craig Burns, CSA. Original casting by Beth Lipari and Bruce Newberg.

Based on Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 expressionist play of the same name and featuring an electrifying pop/rock score, Spring Awakening follows the lives of a group of adolescents as they navigate their journey from adolescence to adulthood in a fusion of morality, sexuality and rock & roll. An extraordinary creative team including Michael Arden and Spencer Liff has reinvented the groundbreaking musical about lost innocence and the struggles of youth in true Deaf West style.

Following its transfer from Atlantic Theatre Company to Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre, the original production of Spring Awakening was the recipient of eight 2007 Tony Awards including Best Musical; four Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical; three Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Musical; two Lucille Lortel Awards including Outstanding Musical; the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical; and the 2007 Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Musical. Amidst wild critical reception for Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's "ravishing rock score," including the Tony Award for Best Score and Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics, Spring Awakening launched the careers of its young actors now known for their film, television and theater work, and stunned Broadway with "something unusual and aspiring, something vital and new" (Charles Isherwood, The New York Times).

Director Michael Arden, who plays Patrick on the FX series "Anger Management," recently originated the title role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Paper Mill Playhouse and La Jolla Playhouse and previously appeared in Deaf West productions of Big River on Broadway and Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum. Choreographer Spencer Liff is an Emmy-nominee for his work on FOX's "So You Think You Can Dance" and choreographed the current Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

MARLEE MATLIN (Adult Woman) received worldwide critical acclaim for her film debut in Paramount Pictures' Children of a Lesser God, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Actress. At 21, she became the youngest recipient of the Best Actress Oscar and only one of four actresses to receive the honor for her film debut. In addition to the Oscar, Marlee received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama. Marlee followed her debut with Walker starring opposite Ed Harris, filmed in Nicaragua. While filming there, Marlee took time to visit Deaf and hard of hearing children, as she has continued to do throughout her career. Since then, Marlee starred in the features The Player; Hear No Evil; the AIDS drama It's My Party; and What the Bleep Do We Know. Marlee made her TV debut opposite Lee Remick in "Bridge to Silence," a film that marked her first speaking role. She went on to star in other telefilms including "Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story," "Dead Silence," "Freak City," "Where the Truth Lies," and Hallmark Hall of Fame's "Sweet Nothing in my Ear." Marlee also starred in her own NBC series "Reasonable Doubts" opposite Mark Harmon and the Emmy Award-winning "Picket Fences." Marlee was twice nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in a Drama as well as the People's Choice Awards. She has been nominated for four Emmy Awards for her appearances on "Seinfeld," "Picket Fences," "The Practice," and "Law and Order: SVU." Marlee starred for seven years on the award winning drama "The West Wing," and has made numerous guest appearances including "ER," "Desperate Housewives," "CSI: New York," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Desperate Housewives," "Nip/Tuck," "CSI," "Glee," and "Family Guy." In 2007 Marlee joined "The L Word" for three seasons. Marlee broke barriers once again when she starred on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." In 2011, Marlee joined the cast of the Peabody Award winning ABC Family series, "Switched at Birth." In 1994, Marlee was appointed by President Clinton to the Corporation for National Service and served as Chairperson for National Volunteer Week. Marlee currently serves as a National Celebrity Spokesperson for The American Red Cross and was instrumental in getting federal legislation passed in support of Closed Captioning both on television and online. She also serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations including Easter Seals. Throughout the years, Marlee has helped raise awareness for better hearing health for millions of deaf and hard of hearing children and adults in developing countries, supporting the Starkey Hearing Foundation by raising a record setting one million dollars in one day. In 2009, Marlee published her New York Times Best Selling autobiography "I'll Scream Later," and has authored three novels for children including "Deaf Child Crossing" and "Nobody's Perfect." In 2015 she developed her first app for teaching American Sign Language, "Marlee Signs." Marlee makes her home in the Los Angeles area with her husband, a law enforcement officer, and their four children.