John Lithgow to Direct World Premiere of Douglas McGrath's EVERYTHING'S FINE Off-Broadway

Everything's Fine, a world premiere autobiographical one-man play written and performed by Academy Award-nominated writer, actor and director Douglas McGrath, and directed by two-time Tony Award and six-time Emmy Award winner John Lithgow, will open Thursday, October 13, 2022 for a limited engagement at the DR2 Theatre (101 West 15th Street), with previews beginning Wednesday, September 28. Everything's Fine, an alternately funny, touching, and shocking memoir for the stage, is produced by 13-time Tony Award winner Daryl Roth and Emmy Award winner Tom Werner. Tickets are now on sale at Telecharge.com.

Mr. McGrath's varied career includes co-writing the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for Bullets Over Broadway, writing and directing Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, and Toni Colette, and writing the book for the long-running and Tony Award-winning Broadway show, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. He began his career as a writer for "Saturday Night Live," and has been a contributor to The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and The New Republic, among other publications.

Though he has appeared as an actor in numerous films and television shows, including Quiz Show, The Insider, "Godless" and "Girls," Everything's Fine marks McGrath's first New York stage performance in over 25 years.

Prior to his storied acting career, Mr. Lithgow directed shows at several major US regional theatres, including McCarter Theatre and Long Wharf Theatre. Everything's Fine is his return to directing after a forty-five-year hiatus.

Everything's Fine recounts McGrath's life as a 14-year-old in Midland, Texas - the town most famous for the disappearance below ground, and the recovery above ground, of "Baby Jessica." McGrath shares remembrances of the courtship of his one-eyed father and his mother, who worked at Harper's Bazaar for Diana Vreeland and became pals with Andy Warhol, and most intriguingly, an eighth-grade teacher who would change his life in the most unexpected way.

"This is a high wire act of a play that alternately delights and blindsides you with emotion," commented John Lithgow. "Doug is a very funny man, sharing a deeply personal story that leaves listeners slack jawed. The intimate DR2 Theatre is the perfect home for it, and we cannot wait for New York audiences to discover the secrets of Everything's Fine."

The creative team features set design by two-time Tony Award winner John Lee Beatty, costume design by Tony Award winner Linda Cho, lighting design by Caitlin Smith Rapoport and sound design by Emma Wilk. Production Stage Manager is Amy Rauchwerger.

Douglas McGrath

(Actor/Author) is a filmmaker, playwright, and essayist. For the theater he has written Checkers (Vineyard Theater), The Age of Innocence (Hartford Stage and the McCarter) and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, which ran for 2,478 performances at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. For this, he was nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. His films as writer-director include Emma, Nicholas Nickleby, Company Man and Infamous. He was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay of Bullets Over Broadway. He has directed two documentaries for HBO, "His Way," about the legendary music promoter and movie producer Jerry Weintraub, and "Becoming Mike Nichols." Both were Emmy-nominated. He has written essays, some comic and some not so, for The New Yorker, The New York Times and Vanity Fair and he is a columnist at Air Mail. He began his career as a writer for "Saturday Night Live," in what was incontestably the worst year in the show's history. He was born in West Texas and has never gotten over it.

John Lithgow

(Director). Early on, Mr. Lithgow staged major productions at McCarter Theater, Long Wharf Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, and the Phoenix Theater Company in New York. His precocious directing career took a sharp turn at the age of 27 when he won a Tony Award for acting in David Storey's The Changing Room, two weeks after his Broadway debut. Since then, he has amassed an extraordinary list of acting credits on stage, film, and TV, winning him multiple Oscar, Emmy, and Tony nominations and awards. Standout moments have included The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment on film; "3rd Rock from the Sun" and "The Crown" on TV; and M. Butterfly and Sweet Smell of Success on Broadway. He has even starred in England with The Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre. A recent Broadway credit was Stories by Heart, his solo show at Lincoln Center and the Roundabout Theater, which inspired Doug McGrath to approach him to direct Everything's Fine, returning Mr. Lithgow to a role he has not played in forty-five years.

John Lee Beatty

(Set Design), in a 50-year career, has designed 117 Broadway plays, recently the Plaza Suiterevival, Sweat, Disgraced, The Nance, Doubt, Other Desert Cities, Rabbit Hole, Good People, Proof, The Sisters Rosensweig, Burn This, Fifth of July, Talley's Folly, as well as celebrated revivals of A Delicate Balance, The Heiress, Dinner at Eight, and the musicals Chicago, The Color Purple, After Midnight, Ain't Misbehavin' and The Most Happy Fella. He has designed premieres by playwrights Lanford Wilson, Mamet, Pinter, Miller, Henley, Baitz, McNally, Nottage, Wasserstein, Ives, Lindsay-Abaire, Gurney, Friel, Auburn, Shanley, and more. Equally prolific off-Broadway at Circle Rep Co, Lincoln Center Theater (the recent Epiphany), the Manhattan Theater Club, Shakespeare in the Park, 22 seasons of Encores!, and at the major regional theaters, he has also designed opera, film, television, circus, and seven restaurants. Multiple Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Obie Awards, and the Theater Hall of Fame.

Linda Cho

(Costume Design) Broadway: POTUS, Take Me Out, The Great Society, The Lifespan of a Fact,Anastasia (Tony nomination), A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder (Tony Award), The Velocity of Autumn. Off Broadway: Twilight, Cambodian Rock Band (Signature Theatre), Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, Endlings (NYTW). Regional: A Thousand Splendid Suns (ACT), Bhangin' It (La Jolla Playhouse), Noir (Alley Theatre). Opera: Samson et Dalila (Met Opera). Other awards: TDF's Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, Ruth Morley Design Award. Other: Advisory Committee Member of American Theatre Wing. Education: M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. lindacho.com.

Caitlin Smith Rapoport

(Lighting Design) is delighted to be making her Daryl Roth Theatre debut. Broadway (associate): To Kill a Mockingbird. Off Broadway: Theater Row, Ars Nova, SoHo Playhouse, New Ohio, The Gym at Judson. Regional: REDCAT, Yale Repertory Theatre, Two River Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Theater Squared, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, Totem Pole Playhouse, Stonybrook Opera. Associate credits include: The Public, Vineyard Theatre, Signature Theatre, and National Museum of African American History and Culture. Tours in the US and Scandinavia with Wakka Wakka Puppet Theater, Cirkus Xanti. MFA Yale School of Drama, BA University of Massachusetts Amherst. Proud member of United Scenic Artists, IATSE Local 829. caitlinsmithrapoport.com

Emma Wilk

(Sound Design) is a New York-based sound designer and collaborator. Her designs have been heard at New York theaters including The Public, Theater Row, The Lortel, The New Victory, New World Stages, La MaMa, 59E59, Rattlestick, and HERE. Some of her favorite designs include Confidence (and the Speech), Monsoon Season, The Heiress, Dog Man: The Musical, A Clockwork Orange, Bright Half Life, Machinal, Ajijaak on Turtle Island, and Gorey: The Secret Lives of Edward Gorey. She has worked regionally in Washington DC, New England, New Jersey, Upstate NY, Idaho and Aspen CO. Broadway Associate/Assistant Designer credits include How I Learned to Drive, Take Me Out, Caroline, or Change,Burn This, Long Day's Journey into Night, Heisenberg, and The Lyons. Member USA 829. Emmamwilk.com.

Daryl Roth

(Producer) holds the singular distinction of producing seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Anna in the Tropics; August: Osage County; Clybourne Park; How I Learned to Drive; Proof; Edward Albee's Three Tall Women; and Wit. The proud recipient of 13 Tony Awards and London's Olivier Award, her over 125 award winning productions include: Kinky Boots; Absolute Brightness; Angels in America; Between the Lines; Buyer & Cellar; Company; Curtains; Funny Girl; Gloria: A Life; Edward Albee's The Goat or Who is Sylvia;Indecent; Into the Woods; It Shoulda Been You; The Kite Runner; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; The Normal Heart; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; War Horse; and The Year of Magical Thinking. A Trustee of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Lincoln Center Theater, she was honored to have been inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. DarylRothProductions.com.

Tom Werner

(Producer). In addition to his membership in the Television Academy Hall of Fame, Tom Werner has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Producers Guild of America. The Carsey-Werner company, which Marcy Carsey and he co-founded, has produced over 2000 hours of quality television, including the upcoming spinoff of "That 70s Show" on Netflix, called "That 90s Show." Tom is especially proud of his association with John Lithgow (director), with whom he worked for six seasons on "3rd Rock from the Sun." Lithgow won 3 Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series on that show. More recently, Tom collaborated with Daryl Roth when they co-produced the critically acclaimed "In and Of Itself," starring Derek DelGaudio, which ran for two years at the Daryl Roth Theatre. Werner loves New York City, where he was born, but he admits to rooting for the Boston Red Sox, as he is Chairman of that baseball team.

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