Pullman Set for Second Stage Albee Play; Kitt on Line-Up Too

Second Stage Theatre has announced the line-up for its 2007-08 season. 

Second Stage Theatre's upcoming 29th season will continue the company's critically acclaimed mission of producing bold new plays and musicals by American Playwrights as well as second stagings of the best of Contemporary Theatre  The season will commence on October 19th with the New York premiere of Edward Albee's Peter and Jerry, featuring Bill Pullman, who last appeared in New York to acclaim in Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, Tony-nominee JohAnna Day (Proof) and Dallas Roberts (A Number).  The production, by the legendary author of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Delicate Balance and others, will be directed by Pam MacKinnon (All the Wrong Reasons, Back at Liepzig).  It will open in mid-November and run through December 9th.

The season will also include Next to Normal, a new musical with music by Tom Kitt (High Fidelity), book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, and directed by Michael Greif (Grey Gardens, Rent), as well as the world premiere of Farragut North, a dark comedy set in the world of presidential politics from new playwright Beau Willimon.  Second Stage's fourth production will be a new staging of Richard Nelson's (Frank's Home, James Joyce's The Dead) acclaimed 1989 comedy Some Americans Abroad, directed by Gordon Edelstein, the artistic director of New Haven, CT's Long Wharf Theatre.  Dates, and casting, for these productions will be announced.

In Peter and Jerry, "Albee delves deeper into his 1958 play The Zoo Story by adding a first-act, Homelife, leading to Peter's fateful meeting with Jerry on a park bench in Central Park."

In Next to Normal, previously seen at NYMF, "one almost average suburban family comes to grips with a long buried secret in this haunting and darkly funny new musical.  With provocative lyrics and an electrifying score, Next to Normal explores the lengths to which we'll go to  keep ourselves sane and our families in place."

In Farragut North, "hot-shot press secretary Stephen Myers is at the top of his game with his candidate poised to take the presidential nomination. As primaries commence in Iowa, Stephen's world unravels when colleagues become competition, lovers become liabilities and one election becomes his last hope of survival."

In Some Americans Abroad, "a group of pretentious American college students,  accompanied by their professors, embark on a literary tour of England. With a crammed itinerary and barely enough time to digest the sites, their behavior devolves from appreciative to appalling in this hilarious comedy."

For subscription or ticket information, please call the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visit the company's website, www.2ST.com.  All productions are staged at Second Stage Theatre, 307 West 43rd Street (just west of Eighth Avenue).

Photo of Edward Albee by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.