Tracee Chimo Pallero, Santino Fontana, Morgan Spector and Jason Butler Harner Join Roundabout's FALLEN ANGELS Benefit Reading

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, President/CEO, in memoriam; Scott Ellis, Interim Artistic Director) has just announced additional casting for the special Benefit Reading of Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels, directed by Scott Ellis.

The previously announced Rose Byrne as “Jane Banbury,” and Kelli O’Hara as “Julia Sterroll,” will be joined by Santino Fontana as “Willy Banbury,” Jason Butler Harner as “Fred Sterroll,” Tracee Chimo Pallero as “Saunders,” and Morgan Spector as “Maurice Duclos.”

Sparkling, dizzying, and deliciously potent, Noël Coward’s Champagne-fresh comedy of bad manners shocked and delighted audiences in its 1925 premiere. Now Emmy nominee Rose Byrne and Tony winner Kelli O’Hara head a star-studded cast to bring Coward’s unmatched wit to life once again, for one night only, under the direction of Roundabout Interim Artistic Director Scott Ellis.

Two upper-class wives, their husbands away for the day, share a few toasts to their pre-marital dalliances—with the same man, who just may be en route from France to visit. Old rivalries and past scandals bubble to the surface in this intoxicating romp from one of theatre’s comedy masters.

Proceeds from the Benefit Reading of Fallen Angels support Roundabout Theatre Company’s many programs and initiatives, including Education at Roundabout. VIP, Benefactor and Producer tickets include admission to an exclusive post-show party following the performance. Golden Ram, DE-NADA Tequila, Reyka Vodka, and Hendrick's Gin are the alcohol sponsors for the evening.

BIOS:

Rose Byrne (Jane Banbury) is an Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actress who continues to captivate audiences with her tremendously diverse body of work. Byrne is widely known for her role as ‘Ellen Parsons’ in Damages, opposite Glenn Close. The series, created by Daniel Zelman, Glenn Kessler and Todd Kessler, ran for five seasons, garnering Byrne two Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nomination for her portrayal. She is also known for her role in the Paul Feig directed comedy, Bridesmaids, alongside Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Melissa McCarthy. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Comedy and Musical and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Upcoming, Byrne stars in Tony Goldwyn’s Ezra opposite Robert De Niro and Bobby Cannavale. The film follows ‘Max Brandel’ (Cannavale), who blows up his successful career and marriage to become a somewhat less successful stand-up comic. The film is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival September 2023.

Currently, Byrne can currently be seen in the third and final season of the Apple TV+ Original drama series Physical, which she stars in and serves as an executive producer. The series follows ‘Sheila’ (Byrne), a woman struggling in her life as a quietly tortured housewife in a 1980s Southern California beach community before finding herself on an unconventional path to power in the world of jazzercize aerobics. Bryne also reteamed with Seth Rogan to star in the Apple TV+ Original series Platonic as two former childhood best friends who reconnect as adults and try to get past the rift that led to their falling out.

In 2020, Byrne starred in FX’s limited series, Mrs. America, where she portrayed Gloria Steinem. The series tells the true story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and the unexpected backlash led by a conservative woman named Phyllis Schlafly (played by Cate Blanchett). Byrne led the cast of second-wave feminists, alongside Uzo Aduba, Tracey Ullman and Ari Graynor, among others. The nine-episode limited series was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Limited Series.

Also in 2020, Byrne returned to the theatre stage in BAM’s Medea, alongside Bobby Cannavale, as they portrayed a divided couple drawn into brutal conflict in a contemporary rewrite of Euripides’ Greek tragedy. Medea, directed by Simon Stone, opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater. Byrne was nominated for a 2020 Drama Desk award in the category of Outstanding Actress in a Play and for a 2020 Drama League Award in the category of Distinguished Performance on behalf of her performance in the show.

In addition, Byrne’s other film credits include: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Insidious 5: The Red Door, Spirited, Seriously Red, which she also produced, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway Peter Rabbit, Irresistible, Like a Boss, I Am Mother, Instant Family, Peter Rabbit, Juliet Naked, Insidious: The Last Key, I Love You Daddy, X-Men: Apocalypse, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, The Meddler, Spy, Annie, Adult Beginners, This is where I Leave You, Neighbors, Insidious: Chapter 2, The Turning, The Internship, I Give It a Year, The Place Beyond the Pines, X-Men: First Class, Insidious, Get Him to the Greek, I Love You Too, Knowing, Adam, The Tender Hook, Just Buried, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine, The Dead Girl, Marie Antoinette, The Tenants, Wicker Park, Troy, The Rage in Placid Lake, All the Way, Take Away, I Capture the Castle, City of Ghosts, and Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones.

Her other TV credits include The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Outstanding Television Movie Emmy Award Nominee). Byrne’s theatre credits include You Can't Take it With You (Broadway debut), Sydney Theatre Company’s Speed-the-Plow, La Dispute and Three Sisters.

KELLI O’HARA (Julia Sterroll), star of stage and screen, has established herself as one of Broadway's greatest leading ladies. The Tony Award winner, Emmy and Grammy-nominated actress has appeared in eleven Broadway shows for which she has garnered seven Tony Award Nominations.

She won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, along with Grammy, Drama League and Outer Critics nominations for her portrayal of Anna Leonowens in The King and I. She then reprised the role while making her West End debut garnering a prestigious Olivier Nomination for her performance and then performed a limited engagement at Tokyo's Orb Theatre.

O’Hara received an Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Katie Bonner in Topic's hit web series, The Accidental Wolf, and can currently be seen as Aurora Fane on HBO’s critically acclaimed series, “The Gilded Age.”

She has had several recurring television roles such as Showtime's “Master of Sex,” “13 Reasons Why,” “Blue Bloods,” and “All My Children.” Additional Film and Television credits include All the Bright Places, Peter Pan Live!, Sex & The City 2, Martin Scorsese’s The Key to Reserva, “The Good Fight,” “N3mbers,” and the animated series “Car Talk.”

O’Hara’s other Broadway credits include Kiss Me, Kate (Tony, Drama League, OCC nominations), The Bridges of Madison County (Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, OCC nominations), Nice Work If You Can Get It (Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, OCC nominations), South Pacific (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations), The Pajama Game (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations), The Light in the Piazza (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), Sweet Smell of Success, Follies, Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde.

The Times has hailed her as “Broadway musical’s undisputed queen.” O’Hara was awarded the prestigious Drama League's Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award in 2019.

In 2015, she made history as the first artist to make the crossover from Broadway to Opera when she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Lehar's The Merry Widow opposite Renée Fleming and in 2018 returned as Despina in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte. She was last seen at The Metropolitan Opera in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Hours, as Laura Brown.

Her concerts have gained international acclaim, spanning from Carnegie Hall to Tokyo. She is a frequent performer on PBS's live telecasts, The Kennedy Center Honors, and performs often alongside The New York Philharmonic and The New York Pops.

Along with her two Grammy nominations, her solo albums, “Always,” and “Wonder in the World,” are available on Ghostlight.

Season 3 of “The Accidental Wolf” is now streaming on Topic. Upcoming, Season 2 of “The Gilded Age” on HBO.

O’Hara recently starred in the critically acclaimed new musical, Days Of Wine And Roses, Off-Broadway at The Atlantic Theatre Company, a musical she asked Guettel to create for her 21 years ago.

Santino Fontana (Willy Banbury). One of Broadway’s foremost leading men, Santino Fontana has won the Tony Award, two Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, an Obie Award, and the Clarence Derwent Award for his work in multiple straight plays and musicals. He is widely known for lending his voice to the villainous ‘Prince Hans’ in Disney’s Academy Award-winning animated feature, Frozen. He was also seen in Universal Studio’s Sisters, opposite Tina Fey & Amy Poehler. On television, Santino was recently seen on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” He starred as crooked cop, ‘Saperstein’, opposite Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta on NBC’s drama “Shades of Blue” while simultaneously starring as alcoholic bartender and fan favorite, ‘Greg’, on the comedy, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” Other TV includes “Fosse/Verdon,” “The Good Wife,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Brain Dead,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “Evil” and “Royal Pains.”

The New York Times wrote, “Santino Fontana [is] one of the most promising actors to emerge in the New York theater in recent years.” Broadway credits include Tootsie, Hello Dolly! opposite Bernadette Peters, Act One opposite Tony Shalhoub, Cinderella, The Importance of Being Earnest, A View From The Bridge, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Billy Elliot and Sunday In The Park With George. Off-Broadway, Santino was acclaimed for his performance in Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet.

A critically acclaimed narrator of audiobooks, he was the original voice of ‘Joe’ in Caroline Kepnes’s cult hit You and all its sequels. He received the Audie award for Stephen King’s The Institute and was chosen to read Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Other titles include works by Tom Perrotta, Stephen Crane, Cara Bastone, Frederik Backman, Jennifer Weiner, Alice Hoffman, and Naomi Alderman.

Jason Butler Harner (Fred Sterroll) last appeared with the Roundabout in the world premiere of Bernhardt/Hamlet, as well as in The Paris Letter and Juno and the Paycock. Broadway productions include the landmark trilogy The Coast of Utopia and the most recent production of The Crucible. He performed at The Donmar Warehouse in Serenading Louie. Memorable NY productions include Cock, Orange Flower Water, The Village Bike, and Macbeth. Screen roles include “Ozark,” “Handmaid's Tale,” “Rabbit Hole,” “Ray Donovan,” “Homeland,” “Scandal,” and the forthcoming “Sterling Affairs,” and “Sugar,” opposite Colin Ferrell. Film roles include Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, The Family Fang, Taking of Pelham 123, and indie favorites Letters to the Big Man, The Big Bend, Elevate, and the award-winning short film currently in Oscar consideration, The Anne Frank Gift Shop.

Tracee Chimo PALLERO (Saunders). Broadway: Noises Off (Roundabout), The Heidi Chronicles, Harvey, and Irena’s Vow. Off Broadway: Lips Together Teeth Apart (Second Stage), Break of Noon (MCC), Bad Jews (Roundabout; 2014 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League nominations), Bachelorette (Second Stage; Lucille Lortel nomination, Clarence Derwent Award), and Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons; Lucille Lortel nomination, Obie and Drama Desk Awards). Her television credits include HBO MAX’s “Julia,” HBO’s “The Undoing,” NatGeo’s “Genius: Picasso,” CBS’s “Madam Secretary,” Hulu’s “Difficult People,” Netflix’s “Orange Is The New Black,” “Royal Pains,” “Black Box,” “High Maintenance,” “Instinct,” “The Money,” “People of Earth,” “Louie,” and “The Good Wife.” Her film credits include Private Life, The Sound of Silence, Sully, Blackhat, Take Care, Concussion, The Five Year Engagement, and Side Effects.

Morgan Spector (Maurice Duclos). A classically trained stage actor, Morgan Spector continues to charm audiences through energetic characters in a wide range of film, theater, and television roles.

Upcoming, Spector will reprise his lead role in HBO’s original series “The Gilded Age” for its highly anticipated Season 2 premiering on Sunday, October 29. From Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, the series follows a young woman who moves in with her old-money aunts and quickly gets entangled in the social war between them and their new-money neighbors. Spector stars alongside Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon.

Also, Spector received critical acclaim, including a Critics Choice Nomination, for his work in David Simon’s “The Plot Against America,” opposite Winona Ryder, John Turturro, and Zoe Kazan. Additional TV credits include “Homeland,” (Showtime) and “Boardwalk Empire” (HBO), as well as leads on “Pearson” (USA), “The Mist” (Spike), and “Allegiance” (NBC).

On the big screen, his credits include Nanny, which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival; A Vigilante opposite Olivia Wilde; the relationship drama Permission opposite Dan

Stevens and Rebecca Hall; and a turn as Sylvester Stallone in director Philippe Falardeau's biopic Chuck, the true story of boxer Chuck Wepner, who inspired the film series Rocky. Spector can also be seen starring opposite Kiera Knightley in 20th Century’s Boston Strangler written and directed by Matt Ruskin.

Spector is also featured in Audible’s upcoming scripted podcast, “The Miranda Obsession.”
In addition, he directed the short Mother!! for the short film collection With/in: Volume 1, which had its premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. He also produced the documentary The Big Scary ’S’ Word.

On stage, Spector made his Broadway debut in 2010 in Gregory Mosher's Tony Award-winning revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge starring opposite Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson. He was later nominated for a Drama Desk for his performance in The New Group's production of Erika Sheffer's Russian Transport starring Janeane Garofalo. Other significant stage performances include Harvey and Machinal (Roundabout) on Broadway, Ironbound (Rattlestick), and Incognito (MTC). Spector was last seen onstage off-Broadway in Clare Lizzimore's Animal starring opposite Rebecca Hall at the Atlantic Theatre.

A graduate of Reed College and the prestigious American Conservatory Theater, Spector lives in New York with his wife and daughter.

NOËL COWARD (Playwright) was born in 1899 and made his professional stage debut as Prince Mussel in The Goldfish at the age of 11, leading to many child actor appearances over the next few years His breakthrough in playwriting was the controversial The Vortex (1924) which featured themes of drugs and adultery and made his name as both actor and playwright in the West End and on Broadway. During the 1920s and 1930s, Coward wrote a string of successful plays, musicals and intimate revues including Fallen Angels (1925), Hay Fever (1925), Easy Virtue (1926), This Year of Grace (1928), and Bitter Sweet (1929). His professional partnership with childhood friend Gertrude Lawrence, started with the musical Revue London Calling (1923) and was followed by Private Lives (1931), and Tonight At 8.30 (1936).

During World War II, he remained a successful playwright, screenwriter and director, as well as entertaining the troops and even acting as a l spy for the Foreign Office. His plays during these years included Blithe Spirit (1942), which ran for 1997 performances, outlasting the War (a West End record until The Mousetrap overtook it), This Happy Breed and Present Laughter (both 1943). His two wartime screenplays, In Which We Serve, which he co-directed with the young David Lean as well as starring in, and Brief Encounter quickly became classics of British cinema.

However, the post-war years were more difficult. Austerity Britain – the London critics determined – was out of tune with the brittle Coward wit. In response, Coward re-invented himself as a cabaret and TV star, particularly in America, and in 1955 he played a sell-out season in Las Vegas featuring many of his most famous songs, including “Mad About the Boy,” “I’ll See You Again,” and “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” which was followed by three live television specials on CBS including “Together With Music” with Mary Martin In the mid-1950s he settled in Jamaica and Switzerland, and enjoyed a renaissance in the early 1960s becoming the first living playwright to be performed by The National Theatre, when he directed Hay Fever there. Late in his career he was lauded for his roles in a number of films including Our Man In Havana (1959) and his role as the iconic Mr. Bridger alongside Michael Caine in The Italian Job (1968).

Writer, actor, director, film producer, painter, songwriter, cabaret artist as well as an author of a novel, verse, essays and autobiographies, he was called by close friends ‘The Master.’ His final West End appearance was Song At Twilight in 1966, which he wrote and starred in. He was knighted in 1970 and died peacefully in 1973 in his beloved Jamaica.

Scott Ellis (Director) is the Interim Artistic Director of Roundabout Theatre Company. Broadway credits include: Take Me Out (2022 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play); Tootsie (2019 Tony Award nomination), Kiss Me, Kate; She Loves Me (2016 Tony Award nomination); On the Twentieth Century; You Can’t Take It With You (Tony nomination); The Elephant Man; The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony nomination); Harvey; Curtains (Tony nomination); The Little Dog Laughed (Drama League Award nomination); Twelve Angry Men (Tony nomination); The Man Who Had All the Luck; The Rainmaker; 1776 (Drama Desk Award and Tony nominations); Picnic (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination); Company; A Month in the Country; and Steel Pier (Tony nomination). Off-Broadway credits include Dada Woof Papa Hot; The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin; Gruesome Playground Injuries; Streamers; Good Boys and True; Entertaining Mr. Sloane; Flora, the Red Menace (Drama Desk nomination); And the World Goes ’Round (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards), and The Waverly Gallery. His television credits include: “Julia,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Closer,” “Weeds” (executive producer), “30 Rock,” (Emmy Award nomination for Best Director), and “Modern Family.”