RIPCORD, Starring Marylouise Burke and Holland Taylor, Opens Tonight at MTC

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Ripcord, the new comedy by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce, opens tonight, October 20, at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).

The limited engagement features Drama Desk Award winner Marylouise Burke (Kimberly Akimbo, Fuddy Meers), Rachel Dratch (Love's Labour's Lost, "Saturday Night Live"), Glenn Fitzgerald (Hamlet, The Sixth Sense), Daoud Heidami (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, "What's Your Emergency"), Nate Miller (Peter and the Starcatcher, MTC's Of Good Stock), and Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Holland Taylor (Ann, "Two and a Half Men").

David Lindsay-Abaire, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Rabbit Hole, Fuddy Meers, and Good People, returns to MTC with Ripcord, a high-stakes comedy about two women of a certain age locked in a no-holds-barred battle to the death, directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce.

A sunny room on an upper floor is prime real estate in the Bristol Place Assisted Living Facility so when the cantankerous Abby (Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Holland Taylor) is forced to share her quarters with new-arrival Marilyn (frequent Lindsay-Abaire collaborator and Drama Desk Award winner Marylouise Burke), she has no choice but to get rid of the infuriatingly chipper woman by any means necessary. A seemingly harmless bet between the old women quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upmanship that reveals not just the tenacity of these worthy opponents, but also deeper truths that each would rather remain hidden. As heartfelt as it is deliciously inappropriate, this hilarious world premiere marks the author's sixth collaboration with MTC.

The creative team for Ripcord includes Alexander Dodge (scenic design), Jennifer von Mayrhauser (costume design), Peter Kaczorowski (lighting design), John Gromada (original music and sound design), and Thomas Schall (fight director).

Manhattan Theatre Club, under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past four and a half decades, MTC productions have earned numerous awards including six Pulitzer Prizes and 19 Tony Awards. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and two Off-Broadway theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Constellations; Casa Valentina; Outside Mullingar; The Assembled Parties; Venus in Fur; Master Class; Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin.' For more information on MTC, visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.