Sigourney Weaver to Headline Crazy Mary for Playwrights

Sigourney Weaver will return to the stage in Crazy Mary, a world premiere play by A.R. Gurney that will be presented at the Playwrights Horizons Mainstage in May of 2007.

"In an attempt to account for the family inheritance, the scion of a wealthy Buffalo, NY clan and her willful, college-aged son visit their long lost cousin Mary. The catch: Mary is living in an asylum, and has barely spoken in years, forcing mother and son to employ radical ends to get through," state press notes on the show, which will be helmed by Jim Simpson. The director previously collaborated with Weaver and Gurney (The Dining Room, Love Letters, Sylvia) on Mrs. Farnsworth at the Flea Theatre.

Weaver received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in Hurlyburly, and previously appeared at Playwrights Horizons in Gemini. Other Broadway credits include The Mercy Seat, The Guys, The Merchant of Venice and Beyond Therapy. Best known as a film actress, she has been nominated for her performances in the films Aliens, Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl. Holes, Tadpole, Heartbreakers, The Ice Storm, Death and the Maiden, Ghostbusters I and II and the other Alien films are among additional screen credits.

In addition, directors have been announced for two other plays that will be presented as part of the Playwrights Horizons 2006-2007 season. Leigh Silverman, who was most recently represented by Well on Broadway, will helm Tonya Barfield's Blue Door. "When a prominent African-American mathematician in crisis begins to lose his grip on reality, the ghosts of ancestors past shatter the serenity of an insomnia-filled night. Blue Door is a tour-de-force for two actors, a vivid, exuberantly theatrical play about the black American male experience." Previews of play, in its American premiere, will begin in October at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.

Joe Calarco (Assassins and Urinetown at Signature Theatre, playwright of Shakespeare's R&J) has been announced as the director of Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky, a musical with book and lyrics by David Cale and music by Cale and Jonathan Kreisberg. It wil be seen at the Mainstage Theatre beginning in November. "Burnt out, living out of his Studebaker, former country-western star Floyd Duffner's best days seem to be behind him. But when a 20 year-old feral beauty with an electrifying voice enters the picture, an unlikely friendship and musical partnership begins to blossom."

Other productions include Bruce Norris' drama The Pain and the Itch, which will begin previews on the Mainstage on September 1st, 2006. Anna D. Shapiro directs. Robert Falls will direct the New York premiere of Richard Nelson's Frank's Home, a play about architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Produced in association with the Goodman Theatre, it will begin previews in January of 2007 on the Mainstage Theatre.

Call 212-279-4200 or visit playwrightshorizons.org for more information