Tony Nominee Raúl Esparza To Appear in Classic Stage Company's Classic Conversations

Complementing performances of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Classic Stage Company (CSC; Artistic Director, John Doyle) presents Classic Conversations, a rare and intimate evening with acclaimed actor Raúl Esparza, currently electrifying audiences in the play's ruthless titular role.

An engaging distillation of Esparza's life in theater through conversation-with CSC Artistic Director/Arturo Ui director John Doyle-and song, the evening will feature Esparza performing songs highlighting his memorable and varied stage career,with musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell accompanying on piano. Doyle, Esparza, and Campbell last collaborated on Doyle's celebrated production of the Stephen Sondheim musical comedy Company in 2006. This one-night-only engagement takes place Sunday, December 9 at 7 pm at Classic Stage Company (136 E 13th Street, New York); tickets are $100-$150 and can be purchased at classicstage.org or 212-352-3101 (or toll free 866-811-411).

Raúl Esparza's career encompasses an impressive range of stage and screen work. Perhaps best known for his role as New York Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, he is also a four-time Tony Award nominee for his performances in Broadway productions of Taboo, Sondheim's Company, Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, and David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. Other Broadway credits include the revival of The Rocky Horror Show and the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The New York Times Critics' Pick review of Company described Esparza's performance as "riveting," with a "subliminal intensity that hums through Mr. Esparza's deadpan presence," while Variety praised his "wry humor and passionate singing voice" and Doyle's "funny, melancholy, moving...and elegantly spare" production.

Twelve years later, Doyle and Esparza's work together has lost none of its magnetism, with New York Magazine raving, "With a cast of wily, willing storytellers headed by a blisteringly good Raúl Esparza, Doyle's Arturo Ui is a sly, fearsome sideshow, a deceptively humble, hugely exciting piece of work."