Steven Boyer, Richard Easton and More Set for Manhattan Theatre Club's THE EXPLORERS CLUB, Beg. Tonight

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director), Barry Grove (Executive Producer), and Mandy Greenfield (Artistic Producer) previously announced that The Explorers Club, the world premiere comedy by Tony nominee Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde), will be directed by Marc Bruni (Ordinary Days, Old Jews Telling Jokes) featuring Obie Award winner Steven Boyer and Tony Award winner Richard Easton.

THE EXPLORERS CLUB is Mark Easton's second appearance as a part of MTC's 2012-2013 season. This fall, appeared as Rossini in MTC's New York premiere of GOLDEN AGE. Easton received a 2001 Tony for Best Actor in a Play for The Invention of Love. Steven Boyer received a 2012 Obie Award for his performance in Hand to God. In The Explorers Club, Easton plays Professor Sloane and Boyer plays Professor Walling, both members of The Explorers Club.

THE EXPLORERS CLUB begins previews tonight, May 14 and open Tuesday, June 4.

A new madcap comedy from Tony-nominated writer Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde) and director Marc Bruni (Ordinary Days, Old Jews Telling Jokes).

London, 1879. The prestigious Explorers Club faces the worst crisis in their history: their acting president wants to admit a woman, and their bartender is terrible. True, the female candidate is brilliant, beautiful, and has discovered a legendary Lost City, but the decision to let in a woman could shake the very foundation of the British Empire, and how do you make such a decision without a decent drink? Grab your safety goggles for some very mad science involving deadly cobras, irate Irishmen, and the occasional airship.

THE EXPLORERS CLUB is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past three decades, MTC productions have earned a total of 18 Tony Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and an Off-Broadway theatre at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Since January 2011, Mandy Greenfield (Artistic Producer) has taken the lead in programming and execution at MTC's Off-Broadway home. Renowned MTC productions include Venus in Fur; Master Class; Good People; The Whipping Man; Time Stands Still; The Royal Family; Ruined; The American Plan; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin.'

For more information on MTC, visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

Tickets for The Explorers Club are available via the New York City Center Box Office (131 West 55th Street), CityTix (212-581-1212) and www.nycitycenter.org.

Marc Bruni (Director). Old Jews Telling Jokes (Westside), Pipe Dream (Encores!), Fanny (Encores!), Ordinary Days (Roundabout), In the Mood (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Spelling Bee (Paper Mill/PTC), Irving Berlin's White Christmas (Paper Mill), Such Good Friends (NYMF Award), High Spirits (York Mufti), Glimpses of the Moon (Oak Room) and for the St. Louis MUNY: The Music Man, Sound of Music (Kevin Kline Nominations), Legally Blonde, My One and Only, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Associate on fifteen Broadway shows including Nice Work and Anything Goes.

Steven Boyer (Professor Walling). Broadway: I'm Not Rappaport. Recent Off-Broadway: Modern Terrorism (Second Stage), Hand to God (Obie Award, Ensemble Studio Theatre), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Encores!), Motel Cherry (Clubbed Thumb), The Ugly One (Soho Rep), School for Lies (Classic Stage Co), The Coward (LCT3), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (The Public). TV/Film: upcoming Martin Scorcese film The Wolf of Wall Street, "Louie," "Person of Interest," "Law & Order," "Ed," Did You Hear About The Morgans?, The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best. Training: Julliard. Member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Steven also stars in a new independent sitcom pilot from Emily Chadick Weiss, "The Share." Learn more at www.TheShareSitcom.com.

Richard Easton (Professor Sloane). Broadway: Elling; The Coast of Utopia; The Rivals; Henry IV; Noises Off; The Invention of Love (Tony Best Actor 2001, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Awards); Back to Methusela; The Country Wife; School for Scandal. APA Phoenix at the Lyceum: Alceste (The Misanthrope), Berenger (Exit the King), Trofimov (The Cherry Orchard), and Claudius (Hamlet). Off-Broadway: New Jerusalem; Entertaining Mr. Sloane; Bach at Leipzig; Echoes of the War; Observe the Sons of Ulster....; Hotel Universe; Waste; Give Me Your Answer, Do!; Salad Days; Measure for Measure; Taming of the Shrew; Duchess of Malfi. BAM: The Bridge Project's The Cherry Orchard and A Winter's Tale and subsequent world tour: Singapore, New Zealand, Madrid, Recklinghausen, The Old Vic in London and Epidauros in Greece. Philadelphia Orchestra: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn. London: Claudio and Edgar (King Lear), Much Ado... (John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft), The Death of Bessie Smith; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill); School for Scandal (Gielgud, Richardson), Jack (The Importance of Being Earnest at the Old Vic); Higgins (Pygmalion at the Young Vic). Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company: Claudius, Jaques, and Leonato. Stratford-on-Avon, RSC: Ghost (Hamlet); Constable (Henry V); Don Armado; Camillo (Winter's Tale); Northumberland (Richard II); Theseus; Country Dancing; Rochfort (Red Noses); Envoy (The Balcony). Stratford, Connecticut: Romeo; Puck; Claudio (Much Ado); Launcelot Gobbo; Osric; Roderigo; Pistol; Florizel. Stratford, Ontario: Richard III; All's Well That Ends Well; Henry V; Merry Wives of Windsor. Old Globe Theatre, San Diego: Associate Artist and Mentor of MFA Program: Estragon (Waiting for Godot), the Duke (Measure for Measure), Prospero, Claudius, and Ghost (in Hamlet with Campbell Scott), Benedick, Touchstone, Jaques, Iago, Uncle Vanya, Pastor Manders, Henry IV, Gloucester (King Lear), and others. Other musicals: U.S.: The Affairs of Anatol,Camelot . UK: Oliver! (Fagin), The Pajama Game, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Cole. U.K. television: six years of BBC series "The Brothers" and many other assorted shows. U.S. television: "A Month in the Country," "The Admirable Crighton," "An Enemy of the People," "L.A. Law," "Frasier," "Encore! Encore!," "Jury," "Law & Order: SVU," Ben Franklin in the Emmy winning mini-series about his life for PBS, "Boardwalk Empire," "MildrEd Pierce." Films: Henry V and Dead Again (Kenneth Branagh); Finding Forrester; Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes). Easton is a 2008 inductee into the Theater Hall of Fame.

Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia