June 1, 2005
Contact: Adrian Bryan-Brown, Joe Perrotta, Jessica Johnson (212) 575-3030

ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS

THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF

By JON ROBIN BAITZ
Directed by DOUG HUGHES

WITH
JOHN GLOVER, DANIEL ERIC GOLD, JASON BUTLER HARNER,
MICHELE PAWK, RON RIFKIN

PREVIEWS BEGAN FRIDAY, MAY 13^th, 2005
OPENS SUNDAY, JUNE 12^th, 2005

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is proud to present the New York premiere of Jon Robin Baitz’s THE PARIS LETTER, directed by Doug Hughes, featuring John Glover, Daniel Eric Gold, Jason Butler Harner, Michele Pawk and Ron Rifkin. THE PARIS LETTER began previews at the Laura Pels Theatre (Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre; 111 West 46^th Street) on Friday, May 13^th and officially opens on Sunday, June 12, 2005. This is a limited engagement through Sunday, August 7^th, 2005.

THE PARIS LETTER is about sex, power and money. Wall Street powerhouse Sandy Sonnenberg (Rifkin) finds his personal and professional life threatened by the unraveling secrets of his past. A tragic game of financial and moral betrayal is played out over four decades and between two friends at the cost of family, friendship, love and marriage.

THE PARIS LETTER features Tony Award winner John Glover (Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion!, Roundabout’s Give Me Your Answer, Do!), Daniel Eric Gold (Craig Lucas’ Small Tragedy), Jason Butler Harner (Roundabout’s Juno and the Paycock), Tony Award winner Michele Pawk (Hollywood Arms, Roundabout’s Cabaret) and Ron Rifkin, also returning to Roundabout where he won the Tony for his performance in Cabaret and appeared in A Month In The Country.

Playwright and screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz’s most recent play My Beautiful Goddamn City premiered at this year’s Tribeca Theatre Festival following the debut of Chinese Friends at Playwrights Horizons last season. Baitz’s acclaimed adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, starring Kate Burton was produced on Broadway in 2001. His play The Substance of Fire was turned into a Miramax feature film starring Ron Rifkin and Sarah Jessica Parker, with a screenplay adapted by Baitz.

Doug Hughes returns to Roundabout where his work was recently seen in Stephen Belber’s McReele at the Laura Pels Theatre and on Broadway in John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt. He earned 2004 Tony ©, Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle nominations for his direction of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen last season.

The award winning design team for THE PARIS LETTER includes John Lee Beatty (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes), Peter Kaczorowski (lights) and David Van Tieghem (Sound and Compositions).

The world premiere of THE PARIS LETTER opened on December 12, 2004 at the Mark Taper Forum’s new Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles.

BIOGRAPHIES

JOHN GLOVER (Anton Kilgallen) Broadway: Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony and Obie Award), Design For Living, Whodunnit, Frankenstein, The Importance of Being Earnest, Holiday, Chemin De Fer, The Visit, Don Juan and The Great God Brown (Drama Desk Award). Off-Broadway Mr. Glover received the Bayfield Award for Best Classical Performance for The Winter’s Tale. Other Off-Broadway: Sorrows and Rejoicings, Oblivion Postponed, Digby, Give Me Your Answer Do, A Scent of Flowers, Rebel Women, The House of Blue Leaves, The Fairy Garden, Subject to Fits, Criminal Minds and Treats. Television: currently on “Smallville”; five Emmy Award nominations for TV roles. Film includes: 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 and Annie Hall.

DANIEL ERIC GOLD (Sam Arlen, Young Sandy) received a 2004 OBIE Award and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination (featured actor) for his work in Small Tragedy directed by Mark Wing-Davey at Playwrights Horizons. Previous Off-Broadway credits include This Thing of Darkness (Atlantic Theatre Company) and Beautiful Things (Cherry Lane Theatre). Regional credits include the World Premiere of Craig Lucas’ new play Singing in the Forest and Joe Orton’s Loot (directed by Lucas), both at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle, Dealer’s Choice (Victory Gardens Theatre), Henry V (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Indiscretions (Organic Theatre Company). Film: War of the Worlds, The Dying Gaul, and The Negotiator. TV: “Law and Order: Trial by Jury,” “ The Sopranos,” and “ Early Edition”.

JASON BUTLER HARNER (Burt Sarris/ Young Anton). Roundabout: Juno and the Paycock. Off-Broadway: Orange Flower Water (EDGE), Hedda Gabler (NYTW), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Lincoln Center), Mr. Fox: A Rumination (Signature), Five Flights (Rattlestick), Crimes of the Heart (Second Stage), Henry VIII and MacBeth (NYSF/ The Public), and An Experiment with an Air Pump (MTC), also with Doug Hughes. Other theatre of note: The Glass Menagerie, with Sally Field (The Kennedy Center), The Invention of Love and Long Day’s Journey Into Night (A.C.T.), Hamlet (title role, Dallas Theatre Center), Galileo (Yale Rep), and many others. Television: “Law and Order”, “Hope and Faith”, “Criminal Intent”, and various daytime appearances. Independent film: Three Little Wolfs, Trifling with Fate, Garmento, and Regret for Francesca. Training: MFA from NYU Graduate Acting Program.

MICHELE PAWK (Katie Arlen/Lillian Sonenberg). Broadway: Hollywood Arms (Tony Award Best featured actress), Chicago, Seussical, Cabaret (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations), Triumph of Love, Crazy for You (Drama Desk nomination), Mail, A Little Night Music (New York City and Los Angeles Opera). Off-Broadway: Reefer Madness, After the Fair, Hello Again, Merrily We Roll Along, john & jen. Regional: Hollywood Arms, Bounce (Helen Hayes nomination), Dirt, A Class Act (Japan). Film: Cradle Will Rock, Jeffrey, The Girl in the Watermelon, Flight of Black Angel. Television includes: "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "Quantum Leap," "Dear John," "Golden Girls." Recordings: Bounce, Seussical, Cabaret, Crazy for You, After the Fair, Hello Again, Merrily We Roll Along, Lost in Boston III, Broadway Bound, The Stephen Schwartz Album, The Stephen Sondheim Album and the Sherman Brothers Album. A proud member of Actors’ Equity since 1986.

RON RIFKIN (Sandy Sonenberg). Broadway credits include Cabaret (Tony Award, Best Supporting Actor), Wrong Mountain, Broken Glass, A Month in The Country. Rifkin originated the role of Isaac Geldart in Jon Robin Baitz’s Substance of Fire (Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Dramalogue Award for Best Actor) and he played Kenneth Hoyle in Baitz’s Three Hotels (Lucille Lortel Award, Drama Desk nomination for Best Actor). Film credits include The Sum of All Fears, Dragonfly, The Majestic, Boiler Room, Keeping The Faith, The Negotiator, L.A. Confidential, the film adaptation of Substances of Fire, Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives and Manhattan Murder Mystery, Last Summer in the Hamptons, Wolf, JFK. Rifkin currently stars on the hit ABC series “Alias”. He is a proud member of AEA (since 1960), the Actors Studio and Naked Angels.

DOUG HUGHES (Director) is returning to The Roundabout’s Laura Pels where his production of Stephen Belber’s McReele opened in February. His Manhattan Theatre Club production of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt is currently running on Broadway at the Walter Kerr. He is the Resident Director at MCC Theater, where he has directed Last Easter, Scattergood, Frozen, Anadrako and The Grey Zone (Obie Award). Recent work in New York includes Engaged at Theatre for a New Audience; Flesh and Blood, The Beard of Avon and A Question of Mercy, all at NYTW; Othello (with Keith David and Liev Schreiber) at the Public; John Guare's Lake Hollywood at Signature and An Experiment with An Air Pump for MTC. For his work on Frozen, Hughes received Tony Award, Lortel and OCC nominations.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org, or at the box office at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46^th Street). Ticket prices range from $56.25 to $66.25. THE PARIS LETTER will play Tuesday through Saturday evenings 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.
 

The 2004-05 season marked an extraordinary time in Roundabout's history. The theatre has finally secured 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 at 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 Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. The Westin Hotel is the official hotel of the Roundabout Theatre Company.

www.roundabouttheatre.org