Tammy Blanchard, John Benjamin Hickey & More to Star in Lincoln Center Theater's DADA WOOF PAPA HOT

Lincoln Center Theater has announced that Tammy Blanchard, Patrick Breen, John Benjamin Hickey, Alex Hurt, Kellie Overbey, John Pankow, and Stephen Plunkett will comprise the cast of its upcoming production of DADA WOOF PAPA HOT, a new play by Peter Parnell, to be directed by Scott Ellis. DADA WOOF PAPA HOT begins performances Thursday, October 15 and opens on Monday, November 9 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

Alan and Rob (to be played by John Benjamin Hickey and Patrick Breen) are an older married couple with a three-year-old daughter and a life they fought for decades to be allowed to lead. But in the course of one school year, Alan, Rob and their friends struggle with what it means to be married with children at this head-spinning cultural moment. By turns comic and serious, DADA WOOF PAPA HOT asks the question: are the challenges of gay dads the same as those of straight ones, or is there something fundamentally different about being a gay parent?

The production will have sets by John Lee Beatty, costumes by Jennifer von Mayrhauser, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski, and original music and sound by John Gromada.

Peter Parnell returns to LCT where his play QED, starring Alan Alda, enjoyed an extended run at the Vivian Beaumont Theater after a production at the Mark Taper Forum. He most recently wrote the new book for the Alan Menken-Stephen Schwartz musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney Theatrical Group). His other work includes the new book for the Broadway revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; Trumpery (Atlantic Theater Company); a two-part stage adaptation of John Irving's The Cider House Rules (American Theatre Critics Association Award; Seattle Rep, Mark Taper Forum, Atlantic); Sorrows of Stephen; The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket; Romance Language; Hyde in Hollywood; Flaubert's Latest; and An Imaginary Life. He was a co-producer for The West Wing (two Emmy Awards), and a producer for The Guardian, Inconceivable, Six Degrees, and, most recently, The Lottery. He is the co-author of the award winning children's book And Tango Makes Three.

Scott Ellis directed this season's critically acclaimed Broadway productions of On the Twentieth Century, The Elephant Man, and You Can't Take It With You (Tony Award nomination). He also received Tony Award nominations for his productions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Curtains, Twelve Angry Men, 1776, Steel Pier, and She Loves Me. His other Broadway productions include Harvey, The Little Dog Laughed (Lucille Lortel Award nomination for its original Off-Broadway production), The Man Who Had All the Luck, The Rainmaker, Company, Picnic, and A Month in the Country. Off-Broadway he directed Tom Durnin; Gruesome Playground Injuries; Streamers; Good Boys, and True; The Waverly Gallery; Flora, the Red Menace (Drama Desk nomination); and and the World Goes 'Round (Drama Desk Award). His television credits include "Weeds," "30 Rock" (Emmy Award nomination for Best Director), "Modern Family," and "The Good Wife."

Lincoln Center Theater is currently producing the Tony Award winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, directed by Bartlett Sher, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater; Douglas Carter Beane's new play Shows for Days, directed by Jerry Zaks, currently in previews and opening on Monday, June 29 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater; and the LCT3 production of Preludes, a new musical by Dave Malloy, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin, also currently in previews and opening on Monday, June 15 at the Claire Tow Theater.

TAMMY BLANCHARD Broadway: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Gypsy. Film: The Invitation, Into the Woods, Blue Jasmine, Moneyball, Certainty, The Music Never Stopped, Rabbit Hole, Cadillac Records, Waterloo, The Good Shepard, Bella, Stealing Harvard. TV: "Elementary," "Madam Secretary," "Open," "Hoke," "The Big C," "A Gifted Man," "Of Two Minds," "Empire State," "Sybil," "When Angels Come to Town," "Law and Order: SVU," "Amish Grace," "The Guiding Light," "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows."

PATRICK BREEN LCT: The Substance of Fire. Broadway: The Normal Heart, Next Fall, Sweet Adeline, Big River, Brighton Beach Memoirs. Off-Broadway: Wild Animals You Should Know (MCC); Next Fall, A Fair Country, Chelsea Walls, Aven *U* Boys (Naked Angels); Celebration/The Room (Atlantic); Fuddy Meers (MTC); View of the Dome (NYTW); Little Mirders (Second Stage); Life and Limb (Playwrights Horizons). Film: A Most Violent Year, The Neighbor, Christmas with the Kranks, Radio, Men in Black, Fallen Angels, For Love or Money. TV: "Elementary," "Madame Secretary," "Royal Pains," "Blue Bloods," "Criminal Minds," "CSI: Miami," "The Good Wife," "Nurse Jackie," "ER," "Pushing Daisies," "CSI," "Will & Grace," "Monk," "Law & Order," "West Wing," "Frasier," "Sex and the City," "Party of Five."

JOHN BENJAMIN HICKEY LCT: God's Heart. Broadway: The Normal Heart (Tony Award), Mary Stuart, The Crucible, Cabaret, Love! Valour! Compassion! (Obie Award). Film: Truth, Big Stone Gap, Get On Up, Pitch Perfect, Flags of Our Fathers, The Anniversary Party, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Taking of Pelham 123. TV: "Manhattan," "The Big C" (Emmy nomination), "The Good Wife," "Modern Family," "Hannibal," "The New Normal," "Sex and the City," "Law & Order."

ALEX HURT Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Off-Broadway: Placebo (Playwrights Horizons), Scenes from a Marriage (NYTW), Caucasian Chalk Circle (Classic Stage Company), Unrequited (Public). Regional: Other Desert Cities (Alley Theatre); No Man's Land, Who Am I This Time (Artists Repertory Theatre); Traps (Wilma Theater); The Lion in Winter, Othello (Hedgerow Theatre). Film: The River Why, A Better Man.

KELLIE OVERBEY LCT: The Coast of Utopia, QED. Broadway: On the Twentieth Century, Judgment at Nuremberg, Present Laughter, Buried Child. Off-Broadway: Sleeping Rough (The Wild Project, Drama Desk nomination); Rapture, Blister, Burn; Savannah Disputation; Betty's Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons); Lemon Sky (Clurman Theatre); Animals Out of Paper, Good Boys and True (Second Stage); Gone Home, Gone Home, Debutante Ball (MTC); All American Boy (NY Fringe Festival). Film: The Girl in the Book, That's What She Said, Prom Queens, Favorite Son, Sweet and Lowdown, Love Thy Neighbor, 35 Miles from Normal, Outbreak, Defenseless. TV: "30 Rock," "The Good Wife," "Law & Order: SVU," "Law & Order," "Leap of Faith," "The Job."

JOHN PANKOW LCT: Cymbeline. Broadway: Equivocation, Twelve Angry Men, Serious Money, The Iceman Cometh, Amadeus. Off-Broadway: Much Ado About Nothing, Why Torture is Wrong... (Public); Natural Affection (Actor's Company Theatre); Taming of the Shrew (Theatre for a New Audience); Keep your Pantheon & School (Atlantic); The House of Blue Leaves (Center Theatre Group); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (The New Group); Measure for Measure, The Tempest, Ice Cream/Hot Fudge, Two Gentleman of Verona (New York Shakespeare Festival); Aristocrats, Italian American Reconciliation (MTC).

STEPHEN PLUNKETT LCT: War Horse, On the Levee (LCT3). Off-Broadway: London Wall (The Mint); Now Circa Then (Ars Nova); The Orphan's Home Cycle (Signature); This Beautiful City (Vineyard Theatre); Gone Missing (Barrow Street); Jump!, Realism (Kirk Theatre). Film: The Mend, Sina Forma, Half Brother, Care, Rolling on the Floor Laughing. TV: "The Good Wife," "Elementary," "Mercy," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

Photo by Walter McBride