Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) announces the cast for Christopher Durang's award winning comedy The Marriage of Bette and Boo directed by Walter Bobbie, featuring Terry Beaver (Father Donnally), Heather Burns (Emily Brennan), Victoria Clark (Margaret Brennan), John Glover (Karl Hudlocke), Julie Hagerty (Soot Hudlocke), Kate Jennings Grant (Bette Brennan), Adam Lefevre (Paul Brennan), Charles Socarides (Matt), Christopher Evan Welch (Boo Hudlocke).
The Marriage of Bette and Boo will begin previews on June 13th and open officially on Thursday July 10th, 2008, Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46 Street). This is a limited engagement through September 7th, 2008.
The design team includes David Korins (Sets), Susan Hilferty (Costumes), Donald Holder (Lights) and Nevin Steinberg (Sound).
The Marriage of Bette and Boo is a dark comedy that takes a look at the complex marriage of Bette and Boo. Three decades of marriage, divorce, alcoholism, nervous breakdowns and death – all blended in a unique mix of irony, humor and farce – are played out in 33 quick scenes.
Walter Bobbie returns to Roundabout after directing the 2003 Broadway production of Twentieth Century, starring Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche, and featuring The Marriage of Bette & Boo cast member Terry Beaver. John Glover returns to Roundabout and the Laura Pels Theatre after the 2004 production of The Paris Letter. Many other cast members are returning Roundabout artists; Victoria Clark was featured in the Tony winning production of Cabaret, Adam Lefevre returns after the 1996 production of Summer and Smoke and Christopher Evan Welch appeared in the 2001 production of A Skull in Connemara.
The Marriage of Bette and Boo premiered Off-Broadway in May 1985 and won a number of Obie Awards including one for Durang for playwriting. The play also won the Dramatists Guild Hull Warriner Award.
BIOGRAPHIES:
Terry Beaver (Father Donnally). Theatre: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Democracy, Twentieth Century (Roundabout), Henry IV (Lincoln Center), The Man Who Came to Dinner (Roundabout), The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Tony nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award). Regional: Summer and Smoke (Hartford), Proof (Coconut Grove), How I Learned to Drive (Dallas Theater Center), Angels in America, Betrayal, The Dining Room, Shadowbox (Alliance Theater). Features: Imaginary Heroes, Hearts in Atlantis, Company Man. Television: "West Wing," "Shot in the Heart" (HBO film), "Now and Again," "Law & Order(s)," "Third Watch," "The Price of a Broken Heart," "I'll Fly Away" (recurring role).
Heather Burns (Emily Brennan). Theatre: Writer's Block, All Things Considered (Atlantic), This is Our Youth (Garrick Theatre), The Lobby Hero (Playwrights Horizons). Film: Choke, Watching the Detectives, Ashes, The Groomsman, Bewitched, Brooklyn Lobster, Pereception, Miss Congeniality 2, Two Weeks Notice, Kill the Poor, Miss Congeniality, You've Got Mail. TV: "20 Good Years,: Kat Plus One," Baseball Wives," "With You in Spirit," "The Street FBC," "The Beat," " Chicks," "Nearly Yours."
VICTORIA CLARK (Margaret Brennan). Broadway: The Light in the Piazza (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Titanic, How to Succeed…, Urinetown, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls, A Grand Night for Singing, Sunday in the Park With George. Encores!: Bye Bye Birdie. Off-Broadway: Juno, Follies, The Agony & The Agony, Marathon Dancing. Carnegie Hall: Opening Doors, a Stephen Sondheim tribute. Regional: Goodman Theatre (The Light in the Piazza, Joseph Jefferson Award), Long Wharf Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, Virginia Stage. Film: The Happening, Tickling Leo, Cradle Will Rock. Television: "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "Sweeney Todd in Concert" with the San Francisco Philharmonic. Radio: Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. Director, Lyrics and Lyricists (92nd St. Y): Serenade in Blue: The Mack Gordon Song Calvacade.
John Glover (Karl Hudlocke). B'way: The Drowsy Chaperone, Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony, Obie Award), Design For Living, Whodunnit, Frankenstein, The Importance of Being Earnest, Holiday, Chemin De Fer, The Visit, Don Juan, The Great God Brown (Drama Desk Award). Last season, he appeared in Some Men (Philadelphia Theatre Company). Off-B'way: The Paris Letter at Roundabout (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel Award nominations), Sorrows and Rejoicings, Oblivion Postponed, Digby, Give Me Your Answer Do, A Scent of Flowers, Rebel Women, The House of Blue Leaves, Criminal Minds. TV: "Smallville"; 5 Emmy Award noms. Film: Payback, Batman and Robin, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Gremlins II, Scrooged, Masquerade, The Chocolate War, Rocket Gilbraltar, 52 Pick-Up, White Nights, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Melvin and Howard, Julia, Annie Hall.
Julie Hagerty (Soot Hudlocke). Theatre includes: Morning's at Seven, The Front Page (Lincoln Center), A Cheever Evening (Playwrights), The Odd Couple, Raised in Captivity (South Coast Repertory), Three Men On A Horse, Moon Over Miami (Yale Repertory). Film includes: Airplane and Airplane II She's the Man, Just Friends, Adam & Steve, Pizza, Marie and Bruce, A Guy Thing, Behind the Sun, Beirut, Freddy Got Fingered, The Story of Us, Boys Will Be Boys, Broadway, Lost in America, A Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy. Television includes: "CSI," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Girlfriends," "The Guardian," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "King of the Hill," "ER," "Murphy Brown."
Kate Jennings Grant (Bette Brennan). Broadway: Proof and An American Daughter. Off-Broadway: Summer of '42; Encores! Bloomer Girl; Wonderland; and Hard Feelings. Tours: Applause and Finian's Rainbow. TV: " Cold Case," "Supernatural," "Commander in Chief," "Law & Order," "JAG," "Sex and the City," "Trinity." Film: The Object of My Affection, Kinsey, Trust the Man, Forgiven, When a Stranger Calls, United 93, Forst/Nixon. Education: University of Pennsylvania and Juilliard Drama.
Adam Lefevre (Paul Brennan). Broadway credits include Mamma Mia!, Footloose, Summer and Smoke, Our Counrty's Good, The Devil's Disciple. Other New York credits include Cyrano de Bergerac and The Doctor's Dilemma (Roundabout Theatre Company); Henry V (NY Shakespeare Festival); The Boys Next Door and The View from Here (Lamb's Theatre). Regional: Hartford Stage, Yale Rep, Long Wharf, the Alley Theatre and Actors Theatre of Louisville in plays ranging from Moliere and Sheridan to Alan Ayckbourn and Beth Henley. Film credits include Return of the Secaucus 7, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Ref, Only You, Private Parts, Rounders, Music of the Heart, You Can Count on Me, L.I.E., Hearts in Atlantis and Tadpole. TV credits: "No Ordinary Baby" (Lifetime), "Storm of the Century" (ABC miniseries), "Law & Order," "Ed," "Hack" and "Queens Supreme.
Charles Socarides (Matt). LCT: Old Money. Broadway: Awake and Sing!, Off-Broadway: The Paris Letter (Ars Nova; Jonathan Kent, director). Readings: performed in readings at Lincoln Center Theater, Second Stage, New York Theatre Workshop and the Cherry Lane Theatre. Film: Spike Lee's Jesus Children of America, Virgin. TV: "Starved," "Law & Order," "Guiding Light."
Christopher Evan Welch (Boo Hudlocke). Theatre: at the Roundabout A Skull In Connemara, London Assurance, Scapin. Romeo and Juliet, Measure For Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello (NYSF), The Pain and the Itch, (Playwrights Horizons), Sweet Bird of Youth, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Arms And The Man (Williamstown), Festen, The Importance Of Being Earnest, She Stoops To Conquer (Long Wharf Theatre), The Venetian Twins (Guthrie), Purple Heart (Steppenwolf), The Crucible, A Streetcar Named Desire (NY Theatre Workshop). Film: Salomaybe, Synecdoche, NY, The Good Shepherd, Hoax, War Of The Worlds, Keane, The Interpreter, The Stepford Wives, Marie And Bruce, Hamlet, Chinese Coffee. TV: "Book of Daniel," "Law and Order: SVU," "The Sopranos," "Starved," "Whoopi," "Law and Order: C.I.," "Third Watch," "The Practice."
CHRISTOPHER DURANG (Playwright) is a playwright whose plays include A History of the American Film (Tony nomination, Best Book of a Musical, 1978), The Actor's Nightmare, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You (Obie award; off-Bway run 1981-83), Beyond Therapy (on Broadway in 1982, with Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow), Baby with the Bathwater (Playwrights Horizons, 1983), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Public Theatre, 1985; Obie award, Dramatists Guild Hull Warriner Award), Laughing Wild (Playwrights Horizons, 1987), Durang/Durang (an evening of six plays at Manhattan Theatre Club, 1994, including the Tennessee Williams' parody, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls), Sex and Longing (Lincoln Center Theatre production at the Cort Theatre, 1996, starring Sigourney Weaver), and Betty's Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons, 1999; Obie award). His most recent works are Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge, which premiered at City Theatre in Pittsburgh in 2002. And the musical Adrift in Macao, with music by Peter Melnick and book and lyrics by Durang, which premiered at New York Stage and Film in summer 2002, and is under option for off-Broadway 2003-04. Durang is also a performer, and acted with E. Katherine Kerr in the N.Y. premiere of Laughing Wild, and with Jean Smart in the L.A. production. He shared in an acting ensemble Obie for The Marriage of Bette and Boo; and with John Augustine and Sherry Anderson has performed his crackpot cabaret Chris Durang and Dawne at the Criterion Center, Caroline's Comedy Club, Williamstown Summer Cabaret, and the Triad, winning a 1996 Bistro Award. In the early 80s, he and Sigourney Weaver co-wrote and performed in their acclaimed Brecht-Weill parody, Das Lusitania Songspiel, and were both nominated for Drama Desk awards for Best Performer in a Musical. In 1993 he sang in the five person off-Broadway Sondheim revue, Putting It Together, with Julie Andrews at the Manhattan Theatre Club. And he played a singing Congressman in the Encores presentation of Call Me Madam with Tyne Daly at City Center. In movies, he has appeared in The Secret of My Success, Mr. North, The Butcher's Wife, Housesitter, and The Cowboy Way, among others. He has a B.A. from Harvard College, and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama. In 1995 he won the prestigious three-year Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award; as part of his grant, he ran a writing workshop for adult children of alcoholics. In 2000 he won the Sidney Kingsley Playwriting Award. Grove Press publishes several of his plays. Smith and Kraus recently published two new collections: Christopher Durang: 27 Short Plays and Christopher Durang: Complete Full-Length Plays (1975-1995). Grove has recently published Betty's Summer Vacation. Since 1994 he has been co-chair with Marsha Norman of the Playwriting Program at the Juilliard School in Manhattan. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council.
WALTER BOBBIE (Director) directed the international hit Chicago, which won him Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards and has become the longest-running revival in Broadway history. Other Broadway credits include High Fidelity, Sweet Charity starring Christina Applegate, Twentieth Century starring Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche, Footloose for which he also co-authored the book and A Grand Night for Singing. He has directed for the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Sundance, the O'Neill Center and Goodspeed Opera House. He directed Fiorello, the premier production of City Center's Encores! Series, and shortly thereafter was named its artistic director. He has since directed Encores! Tenderloin and Golden Boy, and continues as artistic associate and as a member of the Advisory Committee. Mr. Bobbie's sellout concerts at Carnegie Hall include Carousel, starring Hugh Jackman and Audra McDonald, and South Pacific starring Reba McEntire, which was filmed for Public Television and nominated for an Emmy. His production of Irving Berlin's White Christmas has become a holiday favorite in the U.S. and England. Mr. Bobbie is a member of the Executive Board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre box office (111 West 46 Street). Tickets range from $63.75-73.75.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
The Marriage of Bette and Boo will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.
ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres. The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences.
Roundabout Theatre Company current produces at three permanent theatres each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. The off Broadway home, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre's Laura Pels Theatre with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays while the grandeur of its Broadway home, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.
Roundabout Theatre Company productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; New York State Council on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. American Express is the 2008-2009 season sponsor of the Roundabout Theatre Company. American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. The Westin New York is the official hotel of Roundabout Theatre Company.
Roundabout Theatre Company's 2007-2008 season also includes Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart, directed by Kathleen Turner; Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George starring Daniel Evans & Jenna Russell, directed by Sam Buntrock and Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Laura Linney & Ben Daniels, directed by Rufus Norris.
Roundabout Theatre Company's critically acclaimed Broadway production of Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men has extended its multi-award winning touring production for a second year. Directed by Tony-nominated director Scott Ellis (Curtains) and starring Richard Thomas as "Juror #8," Twelve Angry Men is currently appearing in numerous cities across the country including Hartford, Charlotte, Nashville and Toronto.
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