THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE Revival Added to Second Stage's 35th Season; Performances to Begin 4/22

Second Stage Theatre has announced that Jon Robin Baitz's drama, THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE, will be part of the company's current 35th Anniversary season. Directed by Trip Cullman, THE SUBSTANCE OF FIREwill begin preview performances on Tuesday, April 22 and officially open on Monday, May 12. Casting and the full creative team will be announced at a later date.

Acclaimed playwright Jon Robin Baitz (Other Desert Cities) made his New York playwriting debut at Second Stage Theatre in 1988 with his play, The Film Society, starring Nathan Lane, Laila Robins, and Daniel Gerroll. His prolific career also includes the plays Three Hotels, A Fair Country, Mizlansy/Zilinsky or "Schmucks," Ten Unknowns, and The Paris Letter. Director Trip Cullman returns to Second Stage Theatre where he staged the critically lauded productions of Bachelorette; Lonely, I'm Not; Swimming in the Shallows; and Some Men. Other directing credits include Choir Boy, Murder Ballad, Assistance, and The Drunken City, among others.

"One of the highlights of the past 35 years has been the opportunity to introduce promising playwrights to New York audiences and I'm extremely proud to have given Robbie his first New York production back in 1988 with The Film Society," said Founder and Artistic Director Carole Rothman. "It is a thrill to welcome him back to Second Stage for this 35th Anniversary season and to re-mount one of his most powerful plays in New York for the first time in over two decades."

From the acclaimed playwright of Other Desert Cities, comes a story of a family bound by a proud past but facing an uncertain future. Isaac Geldhart, the volatile and brilliant patriarch of his family publishing house, is stubbornly holding on to his place at the head of the company while his three children try to convince him to publish a desperately needed best-seller. Faced with a changing literary landscape and potential takeover of the company, the Geldhart children must either come to terms with their father and band together or break apart and forfeit the legacy he risked everything to build. Articulate and blessed with a lifesaving and cutting sense of humor, Isaac fights like a man with nothing to lose.

The original production of The Substance of Fire premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 1991 in a production directed by Daniel Sullivan and starring Ron Rifkin and Sarah Jessica Parker. It subsequently transferred to Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theatre and was also made into a 1996 film.

For subscription, group, or single ticket information, please call the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visit the company's website, www.2ST.com. All performances are staged at Second Stage's Tony Kiser Theatre, 305 West 43rd Street (just west of Eighth Avenue).