Michael Urie, Nikki M. James, Among Complete Casting of The Public's A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY

The Public Theater announced complete casting today for the major New York revival of A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner.

Directed by Oskar Eustis, this scorching new version of Kushner's first play will begin performances in the Anspacher Theater with a Joseph Papp Free Preview performance on Tuesday, October 29 and an official press opening on Tuesday, November 19. A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY was originally scheduled to close on December 8 and has been extended one week through Sunday, December 15.

Complete casting for A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY includes Michael Esper (Vealtninc Husz), Grace Gummer (Paulinka Erdnuss), Nikki M. James (Agnes Eggling), Crystal Lucas-Perry (Zillah), Nadine Malouf (Rosa Malek), Mark Margolis (Gottfried Swetts), Michael Urie(Gregor Bazwald), and Max Woertendyke (Emil Traum), joining the previously announcedLinda Emond (Annabella Gotchling), Jonathan Hadary (Xillah), and Estelle Parsons (Die Älte).

Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, reunites with longtime collaborator and Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis in a scorching new version of his first play, the prescient 1985 masterwork suggesting the possibility of the Reagan counter-revolution eventually giving rise to American fascism. Agnes, an actress in Weimar Germany, and her cadre of passionate, progressive friends, are torn between protest, escape, and survival as the world they knew crumbles around them. Her story is interrupted by an American woman enraged by the cruelty of the Reagan administration, and a new character, grappling with the anxiety, distraction, hope, and hopelessness of an artist facing the once unthinkable rise of authoritarianism in modern America. Funny, brilliant, and devastating, this new production of A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY revisits an epic work that takes a piercing look at the vulnerability of American democracy, and demands to know: when the devil takes up residence in your country...will you act?

A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY will feature scenic design by David Rockwell, co-costume design by Susan Hilferty and Sarita Fellows, lighting design by John Torres, sound design by Bray Poor, and projection design by Lucy Mackinnon.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos