RIALTO CHATTER: Kerry Washington Joins Mamet's Broadway 'RACE'

The New York Times is reporting that screen and stage star Kerry Washington will join the Broadway production of RACE, the new play written and directed by David Mamet. Washington will co-star with previously announced James Spader and Richard Thomas in this world premiere production on Broadway. 

Washington has appeared in such films as Ray, The Last King of Scotland, The Dead Girl, and Lakeview Terrace.

Both Kerry Washington and James Spader will be making their Broadway debuts this fall in RACE.

RACE, the new play written and directed by David Mamet will make its world premiere at the Ethel Barrymore THEATRE (located at 243 West 47th St.) beginning on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 with the official opening night on Thursday, December 6, 2009. Rehearsals are set to begin on Monday, October 19, 2009. 

RACE will reunite Mamet with Tony Award winning scenic designer Santo Loquasto who designed the set for the revival of Glengarry Glen Ross as well as the original American Buffalo. It will also be a reunion for Mamet and Tony Award winning lighting designer Brian MacDevitt, who recently worked on Speed-The-Plow and American Buffalo. Costumes will be designed by Tony Award nominee Paul Tazewell, whose recent credits include Guys and Dolls, In The Heights and A Raisin the Sun. To read the full report in The New York Times, click here.

RACE will be the fourth Mamet play to play at the Barrymore Theatre (Speed-The-Plow, November, American Buffalo) and it this will be the third consecutive season for the Barrymore to be home to a Mamet play (November in the 2007/2008 season, followed by Speed-The-Plow in the 2008/2009 season).

David Mamet, the acclaimed and award-winning playwright of American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, November and The Cryptogram, among others, will direct the world premiere of RACE. Mamet's staging credits include the world premieres of his plays Oleanna, The Cryptogram, Boston Marriage, and Faustus, as well as Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants and Ricky Jay: On the Stem, and varioUs Productions for the Atlantic Theater Company and Circle Rep. For motion pictures, he has previously written and directed Redbelt, Spartan, Heist, State and Main, Catastrophe, The Winslow Boy, The Spanish Prisoner, Oleanna, Homicide, Things Change, and House of Games. For television, he has directed numerous episodes of his CBS hit series "The Unit," for which he also is creator and executive producer.

RACE will be produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel & Steve Traxler, the award-winning producers of Speed-The-Plow, Glengarry Glen Ross as well as August: Osage County, Blithe Spirit and Desire Under the Elms.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.