Theater News

Kevin Bacon, Chris Colfer, John C. Reilly Added to Cast of 8 Reading in L.A.

Kevin Bacon
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
Kevin Bacon
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)

Kevin Bacon, Chris Colfer and John C. Reilly have been added to the roster of performers who will take part in the Los Angeles premiere of Dustin Lance Black’s 8, to be offered as a benefit reading at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on March 3, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. Rob Reiner will direct — and appear in — the performance, which will benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

The play, which received a reading on Broadway in September, has been crafted from the transcripts of the Proposition 8 trial over same-sex marriage in California. Among the characters in the piece are Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, the lawyers for the two gay couples who sued California over the ban; Charles J. Cooper, the lead defense counsel; Kristin M. Perry and Sandra B. Stier, a lesbian couple who were among the plaintiffs; and the judge, Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California.

Reilly will play United States District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who found Proposition 8 unconstitutional. Bacon will play Charles J. Cooper, the lead attorney for the anti-marriage proponents of Proposition 8. Colfer will play Ryan Kendall, who testified about his experience being sent by his parents to so-called “reparative therapy” as a teenager.

The cast will also feature, as previously reported, George Clooney as Boies, Jamie Lee Curtis as Stier, Christine Lahti as Perry, Jane Lynch as Maggie Gallagher, and Matthew Morrison as Paul Katami, along with Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cleve Jones, Rory O’Malley, Yeardley Smith, and George Takei.

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