Theater News

James Cromwell, Ari Graynor, Adam Chanler-Berat, and More Cast in Williamstown Theatre Festival Productions

A host of Broadway veterans will spend their summer in the Berkshires.

Adam Chanler-Berat
Adam Chanler-Berat
(© Tristan Fuge)

James Cromwell, Ari Graynor, and Adam Chanler-Berat are among the actors who will spend their summer in the Berkshires and take part in this season’s Williamstown Theatre Festival productions.

Chanler-Berat (Peter and the Starcatcher) is part of the daffy Marx Brothers-inspired comedy Animal Crackers, running June 26-July 14. The production will also feature Jonathan Brody (Naked Boys Singing), Mara Davi (The Drowsy Chaperone), Reneé Elise Goldsberry (Good People), Ellen Harvey (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), and Jacob Ming-Trent (Hands on a Hardbody), all of whom make their Williamstown debuts.

Heather Lind, last seen at Williamstown in the drama The Blue Deep, will play Eliza Doolittle to Robert Sean Leonard’s Henry Higgins in Nicholas Martin’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. They are joined in the comedy of manners, running July 17-27, by Patricia Conolly (Is He Dead?), Don Lee Sparks (Take Me Out), and Paxton Whitehead (The Importance of Being Earnest).

Elena Shaddow (La Cage Aux Folles) will take on the role of Francesca opposite Steven Pasquale in the new Jason Robert Brown-Marsha Norman musical, The Bridges of Madison County (August 1-18), alongside Nick Bailey (Hit the Wall), Cass Morgan (Memphis), Whitney Bashor (The Light in the Piazza), and Caitlin Kinnunen (Spring Awakening).

Graynor (The Performers) will make her Williamstown debut in the world premiere of Bess Wohl’s American Hero, running June 26-July 7. That production will also star Erin Wilhelmi (The Great God Pan) and Josh Stamberg (Distracted). Cromwell (American Horror Story: Asylum) will join Kate Burton in Tom Stoppard’s Hapgood (July 10-21), with a cast that also includes Jason Butler Harner (Cock), Jake Weber (The Rivals), and Victor Williams (Luck of the Irish).

The new musical Johnny Baseball (July 24-August 3) will star James Snyder (Cry-Baby), Burke Moses (The Fantasticks), Joe Cassidy (Catch Me If You Can), Alan Green (Sister Act), and Tony Award winner Roger Robinson (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone).

Concluding the season is The Debate Society’s Blood Play (August 7-18), which will feature the entire off-Broadway company, consisting of Paul Thureen, Michael Cyril Creighton, Hannah Bos, Hanlon Smith-Dorsey, Birgit Huppuch, and Emma Galvin.

Click here for more information on the Williamstown Theatre Festival Season.