VENUS IN FUR Moves to the Lyceum with Nina Arianda & Hugh Dancy; Now Plays Through June 17

Following sold out runs on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club and Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company, VENUS IN FUR, the acclaimed new play by David Ives, directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie, will transfer to Broadway's Lyceum Theatre starring Tony Award nominee Nina Arianda and Emmy Award nominee Hugh Dancy.

VENUS IN FUR is currently playing at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The production will end its limited engagement at the Friedman on Sunday, December 18 and resume performances at the Lyceum Theatre on Tuesday, February 7. Tickets for the transfer of VENUS IN FUR will go on sale this Thursday, December 15 and the production is a limited engagement through Sunday, June 17.

When it opened last month, VENUS IN FUR received universal rave reviews from critics. Charles Isherwood of the New York Times said "Nina Arianda is giving the first must see performance of the Broadway season," Adam Green of Vogue raved that "Hugh Dancy is smashing," and Scott Brown of New York Magazine called the two young actors, "flawless" and David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said they have a chemistry that "sizzles."

Longtime collaborators David Ives and Walter Bobbie have been lauded for their work on the production with the Times saying, "David Ives' Venus in Fur, stylishly directed by Walter Bobbie, is a suspense-packed study of power that is as funny as any play currently on Broadway," Thom Geier of Entertainment Weekly called it "an electric new Broadway drama with a sexiness that is stunning to behold," and Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press said, "Walter Bobbie's direction is taut and dangerous"

VENUS IN FUR is produced at the Lyceum Theatre by Jon B. Platt, Scott Landis, Manhattan Theatre Club Productions, Inc. (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove Executive Producer), Jessica R. Jenen, Scott M. Delman, and Classic Stage Company.

Hugh Dancy is appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association. The Producers gratefully acknowledge Actors' Equity Association for its assistance of this production.

Vanda (Arianda) is a preternaturally talented young actress determined to land the lead in Thomas' (Dancy) new play based on the classic erotic novel, Venus in Fur. Her emotionally charged audition for the gifted but demanding playwright/director becomes an electrifying game of cat and mouse, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, seduction and power, love and sex. This dazzling new play is written by theatrical mastermind David Ives, and directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie.

The creative team for VENUS IN FUR includes John Lee Beatty (scenic design), Anita Yavich (costume design), Peter Kaczorowski (lighting design), ACME Sound Partners (sound design), and Thomas Schall (fight direction).

Tickets ($30.00 - $130.00; Premium: $175 for Wednesday matinees, $200.00 for all other performances) for VENUS IN FUR at the Lyceum Theatre will be available on Thursday, December 15 by calling Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200, online at www.telecharge.com. Tickets will be available at the Lyceum Theatre Box Office (149 West 45th Street) starting Monday, January 23.

The regular performance schedule is Tuesday through Thursday at 7 PM, Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at 3 PM.

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David Ives (Playwright) is probably best known for his evenings of one-act comedies called All in the Timing and Time Flies. All in the Timing won the Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award, ran for two years Off-Broadway, and in the 1995-96 season was the most performed play in the country after Shakespeare productions. His full-length plays include The School For Lies (adapted from Moliere's The Misanthrope and a major hit at New York's Classic Stage Company last spring); The Heir Apparent (an adaptation of J-F Regnard's comedy that was an audience and critical hit at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. this past fall); New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza, which won the prestigious Hull-Warriner Award; Is He Dead? (adapted from Mark Twain); White Christmas; Polish Joke; and Ancient History. He has translated Feydeau's classic farce A Flea in Her Ear, Yazmina Reza's drama A Spanish Play, and Pierre Corneille's 1643 comedy The Liar (also an enormous hit at the Shakespeare Theatre Company two years ago). David Ives is the author of three young-adult novels: Monsieur Eek, Scrib, andVoss, and he has adapted 32 American musicals for New York City's beloved Encores! series. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama and a former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting, he lives in New York City.

Walter Bobbie (Director) won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards as director of the international hit Chicago which and has become the longest-running revival in Broadway history. Recent directing includes David Ives's New Jerusalem, Venus in Fur, and The School for Lies, all at Classic Stage Company, Ives' The Other Woman at EST, as well as Jeff Talbott's The Submission at MCC, EVan Smith's The Savannah Disputation at Playwrights Horizons, Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette & Boo at the Roundabout, and Terrence McNally's Golden Age at the Kennedy Center. Broadway credits include White Christmas, High Fidelity, Sweet Charity, Twentieth Century, Footloose, and A Grand Night for Singing. Bobbie is also an actor who appeared in a range of plays and musicals from the original cast of Grease to Shaw's Getting Married at Circle in the Square, Assassins at Playwrights Horizons, I Love My Wife, Going Up, A History of the American Film, Driving Miss Daisy, Café Crown, and Lincoln Center's Anything Goes, among others. He received a Drama Desk nomination for his performance as Nicely-Nicely in 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls, and Drama Desk, Outer Critics' Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for his performance in David Ives's Polish Joke at Manhattan Theatre Club. Bobbie was Artistic Director for City Center's acclaimed Encores!, and serves on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Nina Arianda (Vanda) was recently nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway debut performance as 'Billie Dawn' in Born Yesterday and has become one of the most talked about and sought after actors in New York. This fall, Arianda appeared in Universal's Tower Heist playing opposite Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy and made her network television debut guest-starring on "The Good Wife." In 2010, she debuted Off-Broadway in Venus in Fur with a phenomenal performance garnering attention from the entire New York theater community. Based on her performance, she was offered roles in Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris, Tom McCarthy's film Win Win, and Vera Farmiga's film Higher Ground. Nina has been honored with awards from the Drama League; an Outer Critics Circle Award, the Actors' Equity Association Clarence Derwent Award; the Theater World Award and Clive Barnes Award. Nina trained at AMDA in their studio program for acting and at the New School for Liberal Arts in New York, Eugene Lang division. She received her MFA from NYU's Tisch graduate acting program.

Hugh Dancy (Thomas) can currently be seen in the critically acclaimed film Martha Marcy May Marlene opposite Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, and John Hawkes. Directed by Sean Durkin, the film tells the story of 'Martha' (Olsen) who escapes from a cult in New York and tries to reintegrate into a normal life with her sister 'Lucy' (Paulson) and brother-in-law 'Ted' (Dancy). The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Fox Searchlight on October 21, 2011. It was recently nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award for "Best Ensemble Performance." He will next be seen in Hysteria opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal. The romantic comedy set during the Victorian-era looks at how the medical community invented the vibrator as a therapeutic massage device. The film premiered at this year's Toronto Film Festival and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics.

For more information, visit www.VenusInFurBroadway.com.