Stiles And Pullman To Spar In Mamet's OLEANNA On Broadway, Previews Begin 9/29

Producer Jeffrey Finn announced today that OLEANNA, the provocative drama by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet, will have its first-ever Broadway production as part of the 2009-2010 Broadway Season. Starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles and directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes, the play is a gripping account of a power struggle between a male university professor and one of his female students.

The Broadway production will begin previews on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at The Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street) with an Opening Night set for Sunday, October 11, 2009. Tickets will go on sale beginning Sunday, July 19, 2009 and will be available for purchase through visiting Telecharge.com or calling (212) 239-6200.

An instant hit with critics and audiences alike, this new production of OLEANNA recently premiered in Los Angeles to rave reviews at the Mark Taper Forum on June 5, 2009. The L.A. engagement is presented by Center Theatre Group by special arrangement with Jeffrey Finn, and is currently playing through Sunday, July 12, 2009.

Written in the heyday of political correctness and the culture wars of the early 1990s, OLEANNA made an instantly incendiary debut - dividing audiences at every performance into two camps, compelled to attack or defend either character. Critics weighing in on this new production confirm that the play hasn't lost any of its bite, power or relevance, noting the intense post-show conversations that continue to erupt nightly. Charles McNulty of The Los Angeles Times called it "A PRIZE FIGHT! You can't argue with a play that retains the power to get theatergoers arguing with each other as they head home. OLEANNA hasn't lost its power to rile an audience." Jay Reiner of The Hollywood Reporter proclaimed it, "DYNAMITE THEATER! Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles are RIVETING together under Doug Hughes' taut direction. Mamet's dialogue flies between the two characters like a shattered pane of glass, each fragment finding its mark and leaving a speck of blood." And Bob Verini of Variety cheered, "BRILLIANT ACTING and Doug Hughes' canny helming fully animate David Mamet's GALVANIC play. Stiles is SUPERB, achieving increasing majesty with each uppercut. Pullman is a REVELATION. His horrified stagger is ONE OF THE SPELLBINDING EMOTIONAL EXHIBITIONS OF THIS THEATRICAL YEAR." 

Bill Pullman will return to the Broadway stage for the first time since he received a 2002 Drama Desk Award nomination starring opposite Mercedes Ruehl in Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?. Other recent stage work includes a second Drama Desk nomination for his appearance in Albee's Peter and Jerry in 2007 at Second Stage and the 2006 Kennedy Center production of The Subject Was Roses (Helen Hayes Award nomination). With a major career in stage, film and television, Pullman is perhaps best known for his roles in the films Independence Day, Lost Highway, Sleepless in Seattle, Ruthless People, While You Were Sleeping, The Grudge, Spaceballs, Scary Movie 4, the recent Bottle Shock and Noble Son and the recently-released Surveillance.

Julia Stiles earned great acclaim for her performance in a previous production of OLEANNA in London's West End in 2004. Having begun her career in the Theater at a young age in New York City, her additional stage credits include the 2002 Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night as Viola, James Lapine's Fran's Bed at Playwrights Horizons and The Vagina Monologues. OLEANNA will mark her Broadway debut. She made her cinematic debut at age 15 in I Love You, I Love You Not with Claire Danes. She followed this with many films, most notably, 10 Things I Hate About You, Save the Last Dance, Mona Lisa Smiles, two David Mamet films State and Main and Edmond and the three Bourne movies - The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.

David Mamet is the acclaimed and award-winning author of numerous plays including Glengarry GLen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award, 2005 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play), American Buffalo, Boston Marriage, November, Speed-The-Plow and The Cryptogram. His new play Race will debut on Broadway this fall and he'll also be represented Off-Broadway with a double bill of one acts at The Atlantic Theatre Company. He has written the screenplays for such films as The Verdict, The Untouchables, Wag the Dog and his own adaptation of Oleanna, and has twice been nominated for an Academy Award. He has written and directed 10 films including Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, House of Games, Spartan and Redbelt and he's also directed for the Theater. He is co-creator and Executive Producer of the CBS hit series "The Unit," and is a Founding Member of The Atlantic Theatre Company.
Doug Hughes won the 2005 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lortel and Callaway awards for his direction of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt. His other Broadway credits include A Man for All Seasons, Mauritius, Inherit the Wind, A Touch of the Poet, A Naked Girl on the Appian Way and Frozen (Tony nomination). His many Off-Broadway productions include The Grey Zone (Obie Award), Flesh and Blood (Callaway Award), Farragut North, Howard Katz and The Paris Letter, and he's also directed numerous production for most of the nation's leading theatre companies. He's Resident Director of New York's Roundabout Theatre Company and in 2005 he won an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence. This fall he'll also direct a Broadway revival of The Royal Family for MTC.

The Broadway production will feature the same creative team, including scenic design by Neil Patel, costume design by four-time Tony Award winner Catherine Zuber, lighting design by two-time Tony Award winner Donald Holder and fight direction by Rick Sordelet. Production Stage Manager is Charles Means.

Following a world premiere in May 1992 as the first production of David Mamet's Back Bay Theater Company in Cambridge, MA and starring William H. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon, OLEANNA had its New York premiere Off-Broadway at The Orpheum Theatre on October 23, 1992. Directed by Mamet and again starring Mr. Macy and Ms. Pidgeon, the hit production ran 513 performances, eventually featuring Treat Williams as John.

Some of the many other notable major productions of OLEANNA include the London premiere at The Royal Court Theatre (1993, directed by Harold Pinter, starring David Suchet and Lia Williams), the Australian premiere with the Sydney Theatre Company (1993, directed by Michael Gow, starring Geoffrey Rush and Cate Blanchett) and a London revival at the Garrick Theatre (2004, directed by Lindsay Posner, starring Aaron Ecklhart and Ms. Stiles). A film version, adapted and directed by Mamet and starring Mr. Macy and Debra Eisenstadt, was released nation-wide on November 4, 1994. 

Bill Pullman (John) started acting professionally in New York theatre in 1983, and shortly after began his film career which currently spans nearly 50 features. His films include Ruthless People, Spaceballs, Casper, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Accidental Tourist, Igby Goes Down, Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping, Independence Day, Malice, The Virginian, Wyatt Earp, The Last Seduction, Lost Highway, The Zero Effect, The Grudge and the current Surveillance. Recent films he has completed include Bottle Shock, Phoebe in Wonderland, You Kill Me, The Nobel Son and Your Name Here. Theatre credits include the world premiere of Edward Albee's The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (Drama Desk nomination) and Albee's most recent production Peter and Jerry (Drama Desk nomination), as well as new plays by Beth Henley and Thomas Babe. Bill directed for the TV series Night Visions, and directed and produced the TNT movie The Virginian (Wrangler Award/Best Picture, 2000). He also starred in a television mini-series for NBC Revelations. Bill has been an "Ambassador" for the MS Society since 1998 and serves on the board of Cornerstone Theater Company. Bill received a BA from the State University College at Oneonta, and an MFA in Theater Directing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Julia Stiles (Carol) originally appeared in Oleanna in a separate production opposite Aaron Eckhart at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End in 2004. She began her career as a member of the Ridge Theater Company, performing at N.Y.'s La Mama and The Kitchen. Other stage credits include Viola in Twelfth Night for the Public Theater, and opposite Mia Farrow in James Lapine's Fran's Bed at Playwrights Horizons. Stiles first worked with David Mamet in his film State and Main, as well as in the film adaptation of Mamet's play Edmond. Stiles earned critical praise starring in Patrick Stettner's independent feature, The Business of Strangers, opposite Stockard Channing. The film premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. She has starred in three Shakespearean film adaptations: O, Hamlet and Ten Things I Hate About You, for which she earned a 2000 MTV Movie Award for Best Female Breakthrough Performance and the Chicago Film Critics Award for Most Promising Actress. She reprised her role as Nicky in Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Ultimatum, the last installment of The Bourne trilogy. Other films include The Omen, A Guy Thing, Mona Lisa Smile, Little Trip To Heaven and Save The Last Dance. Stiles wrote and directed her first short film Raving, starring Zooey Deschanel and Bill Irwin. She graduated from Columbia University in 2005.

David Mamet (Playwright). is the acclaimed and award-winning author of numerous plays including Glengarry GLen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award, 2005 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play), American Buffalo, Boston Marriage, November, Speed-The-Plow and The Cryptogram. His new play Race will debut on Broadway this fall and he'll also be represented Off-Broadway with a double bill of one-act plays at The Atlantic Theater Company. He has written the screenplays for such films as The Verdict, The Untouchables, Wag the Dog and his own adaptation of Oleanna, and has twice been nominated for an Academy Award. He has written and directed 10 films including Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, House of Games, Spartan and Redbelt and he's also directed for the Theater. He is co-creator and Executive Producer of the CBS hit series "The Unit," and is a Founding Member of The Atlantic. He's the author of the bestselling Bambi vs. Godzilla - On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business; The Wicked Son; 3 Uses of the Knife; and True and False - Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor. His book of cartoons, Tested on Orphans, is available at www.sfelectricworks.com.

Doug Hughes (Director) won Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lortel and Callaway Awards for his direction of Doubt. His other Broadway credits include A Man for All Seasons, Mauritius, Inherit the Wind (Drama Desk nomination), A Touch of the Poet, A Naked Girl on the Appian Way and Frozen (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Lortel nominations). Off-Broadway work includes Farragut North (Atlantic Theater Company); Howard Katz, The Paris Letter and McReele (Roundabout); The Grey Zone (Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination), Last Easter, Scattergood, Frozen and Anadarko (MCC); Engaged (Theatre for a New Audience); Flesh and Blood (Callaway Award for Best Direction), The Beard of Avon and A Question of Mercy (New York Theatre Workshop); Othello (The Public); The House in Town (Lincoln Center); Lake Hollywood (Signature); and Doubt, Defiance and An Experiment With An Air Pump (Manhattan Theatre Club). In May 2005, he won an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence. This fall he'll direct a Broadway revival of The Royal Family for MTC.

Neil Patel (Set Designer). CTG: This Beautiful City, Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine, iWitness. Broadway: [title of show], Sideman (West End and Kennedy Center), ‘night, Mother, Ring of Fire. West End: Underneath the Lintel. Off-Broadway: Dinner With Friends (Variety Arts Theater and national tour), Roundabout, Public, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Vineyard Theatre, NYTW, Primary Stages, MCC, BAM. Opera: New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Theatre St. Louis, Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre. TV: In Treatment (HBO). Helen Hayes Award, numerous Drama Desk nominations, 1996 and 2001 Obie Awards for sustained excellence.

Catherine Zuber (Costume Designer). The 125 Gala for the Metropolitan Opera, Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Lincoln Center), The Cherry Orchard (Mark Taper Forum), The Winter's Tale (BAM's Bridge Project). The Lincoln Center Theater: South Pacific (Tony Award), The Coast of Utopia (Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Awake and Sing! (Tony Award), Edward Albee's Seascape (Tony Award nomination), The Light in the Piazza (Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Dinner at Eight, Twelfth Night (Tony Award nominations). Other Broadway credits include Roundabout's A Man for All Seasons, Cry-Baby, Doubt, Frozen, Dracula, The Sound of Music and Triumph of Love. Recipient: 2003, 2004 and 2007 Henry Hewes Award for Design; 2004 and 2005 Lucille Lortel Award; 2004 Ovation Award; 1997 and 2005 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement. Other projects include the 1999 Fete des Vignerons, Vevey, Switzerland. Opera: Romeo et Juliette (Salzburg Festival); IL Barbiere di Siviglia, Dr. Atomic and The Tales of Hoffmann (The Metropolitan Opera).

Donald Holder (Lighting Designer). Broadway: 30 productions, including South Pacific (2008 Tony Award, Drama Desk nomination), Les Liaisons Dangereuses, A Streetcar Named Desire, Gem of the Ocean, Movin' Out, Juan Darien (all Tony-nominated), The Lion King (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards), Cyrano de Bergerac, Radio Golf, Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Boy From Oz. Recent Off-Broadway: The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Romantic Poetry, Saved, Almost an Evening, The Pain and the Itch, Romeo and Juliet (Delacorte). Regional Theatre: Center Stage, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Arena Stage, South Coast Repertory, Huntington, Seattle Rep, Intiman, Williamstown, Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, many others. Mark Taper Forum/Kirk Douglas Theatre: Pippin, The Little Dog Laughed, The House of Blue Leaves, Jitney, Hughie, Spunk, Yellow Face, Without Walls, Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine, many others. LA Opera: Grendel.

Rick Sordelet (Fight Director) has staged 45 Broadway productions, including Disney's The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid and Aida. Upcoming: The Addams Family. He has staged the fights for the opera Cyrano de Bergerac starring Placido Domingo at the Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House and the LaScala in Milan, Italy, and for over 45 first class productions on five continents. Film: The Game Plan starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Dan in Real Life starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche and Hamlet starring Campbell Scott. He is the chief stunt coordinator for Guiding Light and staged the fights for First Jedi, a CD-ROM for George Lucas. Rick received the Lortel Award for Sustained Excellence. He teaches at Yale School of Drama, The New School for Drama and The Neighborhood Playhouse. He is a company member of The Drama Dept., a board member of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and the author of the play Buried Treasure.

Jeffrey Finn (Producer). Broadway: Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, Drama League Award, Best Revival), On Golden Pond starring James Earl Jones (Tony nomination, Best Revival). Off-Broadway: Game Show. National Tours: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Subject Was Roses, On Golden Pond, The Who's Tommy, Leader of the Pack, Tell Me On A Sunday, Promises, Promises, Company, Chess, and numerous Broadway Songbooks concert tours. In 1992, Jeffrey Finn Productions launched a corporate events company, Hot On Broadway, to produce customized corporate entertainment exclusively featuring current Broadway performers. Upcoming Broadway projects include the stage premiere of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner adapted from the Academy Award-winning film.

Center Theatre Group (Co-Producer) (Michael Ritchie, Artistic Director; Charles Dillingham, Managing Director; Gordon Davidson, Founding Artistic Director) is Los Angeles' leading theater company and one of the nation's preeminent arts organizations, programming theater year-round at the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre at the L.A. Music Center, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, and developing an impressive number of Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning plays.

Photo by Craig Schwartz