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The producers of The Parisian Woman, the electrifying new play by "House of Cards" creator Beau Willimon, announced today that Marton Csokas (Loving, The Lord of the Rings) and Tony Award nominee Phillipa Soo (Hamilton, Amélie) will join Uma Thurman, Josh Lucas and Blair Brown to complete the cast, playing the characters of "Peter" and "Rebecca" respectively. Mr. Csokas will be making his Broadway debut.
Directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Clybourne Park),The Parisian Woman will begin previews on Tuesday, November 7 and open on Thursday, November 30 at the Hudson Theatre (141 West 44th St.).
Willimon sets The Parisian Woman in Washington, D.C., where powerful friends are the only kind worth having, especially after the 2016 election. At the center is Chloe (Uma Thurman), a socialite armed with charm and wit, coming to terms with politics, her past, her marriage and an uncertain future. Dark humor and drama collide at this pivotal moment in Chloe's life, and in our nation's, when the truth isn't obvious and the stakes couldn't be higher.
The Parisian Woman has gone through significant rewrites since its first production at South Coast Repertory. "After the 2016 election I felt the need to completely rework the play," says Willimon. "The core remains the same, but given its setting and milieu, there was an opportunity to address our current political landscape through Chloe's lens. To put a sharper edge on her journey. It's a different play than the version Pam MacKinnon and I originally put on stage. One of the things I love about the theater is that you can respond to the present moment in real time. We're excited to take on that challenge."
Willimon's inspiration for The Parisian Woman came from French dramatist Henri Becque's controversial play, La Parisienne which debuted in Paris in 1885.
The creative team for The Parisian Woman is Tony Award winner Derek McLane (scenic design), Tony Award winner Jane Greenwood (costume design), Tony Award winner Peter Kaczorowski (lighting design), three-time Drama Desk Award nominee Darrel Maloney (projections), and Broken Chord (sound design and original composition). Hair Design is by Tom Watson and Make-up Design is by Tommy Kurzman. Casting is by Telsey + Company, Will Cantler CSA.
The Parisian Woman was commissioned by The Flea Theater in New York City (Jim Simpson, Founder, Niegel Smith, Artistic Director, Carol Ostrow, Producing Director). It was originally produced by South Coast Repertory.
It is produced on Broadway by Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, Tom Viertel, Steven Baruch, and Steve Traxler.
Marton Csokas (Peter) will make his Broadway debut in The Parisian Woman. Most recently, he starred alongside Joel Edgerton in Jeff Nichols' critically-acclaimed film, Loving, in True Crimes with Jim Carrey, and in the supernatural thriller Voice from the Stone opposite Emilia Clarke. Csokas can be seen next with Liam Neeson in the Peter Landesman film, Mark Felt, which will premiere at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival. He also stars in the upcoming film Burn Your Maps with Jacob Tremblay and Vera Farmiga. Most famously, he starred as Lord Celebornin Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Additional film credits include starring opposite Denzel Washington in The Equalizer, Darren Aronofsky's Noah, Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, The Debt, David Mackenzie's Asylum, Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Supremacy and Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. On television, Csokas starred as "Quinn" in AMC's dystopian martial arts thriller, "Into the Badlands." He also starred in the History Channel miniseries "Sons of Liberty" and the Discovery Channel miniseries "Klondike" with Tim Roth and Sam Shepard. His international stage credits include Astrov in The Goodman Theatre's production of Uncle Vanya, directed by Robert Falls. He also starred in acclaimed director Ivo Van Hove's production of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at The New York Theatre Workshop; the play was cited by Time Magazine as one of the "Top 10 of Everything of 2010." Additional theatre credits include Orsino in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at The National Theatre of Great Britain, Anthony in Anthony and Cleopatra at the Theatre of a New Audience, Brutus in Julius Caesar and Septimus in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in Csokas' birthplace of New Zealand. On the Australian stage, Csokas starred as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Benedict Andrews of Berlin's Schaubuhne Theatre, and in Riflemind, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman at the Sydney Theatre Company. Csokas has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama, Acting, from Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa, The New Zealand Drama School.
Phillipa Soo (Rebecca) is best known for her lead role as Eliza in Broadway's critically acclaimed show Hamilton, which she joined shortly after its inception. For her performance, she won the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Lead Actress in a Musical and was nominated for a 2016 Tony Award. She recently completed her latest Broadway musical playing the title role in Amélie. After graduating from Juilliard in 2012, Soo was cast as Natasha Rostova in the Ars Nova production of Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, based on Leo Tolstoy's War & Peace; the show went on to transfer Off-Broadway to Kazino. On the small screen, Soo appeared on the NBC television series "Smash" in the role of Lexi. She can next be seen opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the feature film Best Day of My Life, directed by Fabien Constant.
Tickets are now available through www.thehudsonbroadway.com or (855) 801-5876.
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