Signature Theatre has announced an all-star cast for a benefit reading of Sam Shepard's True West. Terry Kinney will direct the reading, set for December 11 at 7 PM at Pershing Square Signature Center's Irene Diamond Stage.
The cast will feature Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) as Austin, David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Lee, Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Mom, and Denis O’Hare (American Horror Story) as Saul.
The production will reunite Moss-Bachrach and Harbour, who performed together in Signature's 2003 production of Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July.
Shepard's play follows the tumultuous relationship between two brothers: Austin, a successful screenwriter, and Lee, a nomadic thief. The play finds the estranged pair reuniting for the first time in five years at their mother's California home. This reading of True West celebrates the late Shepard, who would have been 80 years old this year (he died in 2017). Shepard was a playwright-in-residence at the Signature.
“Signature Theatre was a touchstone for [Shepard] in the New York theatre world," Hannah, Walker, and Jesse Shepard say on behalf of the Estate of Sam Shepard. "When he was a Playwright in Residence there for the 1996-1997 season, the theater fostered and celebrated decades of his work, including films he wrote and directed, his early experimental works, and the pieces that emerged from his longtime collaboration with Joe Chaikin... we celebrate the work that Signature continues to do in their spirit of collaboration, innovation, and risk-taking in the arts. Long live the theater.”
True West originally opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway February 17, 2000, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly, who alternated playing the roles of Austin and Lee throughout the run. The production played 21 previews and 154 regular performances, and closed July 29, 2000.
A Broadway revival starring Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano opened at the American Airlines Theatre January 24, 2019. The production ran through March 17, 2019.
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