Theater News

Alfred Molina, David Hyde Pierce to Contribute to The Importance of Being Earnest: Live in HD Broadcast; Venues Announced

David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce

Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce will serve as host of The Importance of Being Earnest: Live in HD, which as previously reported, will be shown for limited screenings in movie theaters and performing arts centers across the U.S. and internationally on Thursday, June 2, 2011 and varying dates through June 30. In addition, stage and screen star Alfred Molina and Oscar Wilde expert Michael Hackett will discuss Wilde as both writer and man in an intermission special.

The film preserves The Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway production of The Importance of Being Earnest, currently performing at the American Airlines Theatre. Brian Bedford directs and stars as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s popular comedy of mistaken identity, which ridicules codes of propriety and etiquette.

The cast also features Santino Fontana as Algernon Moncrieff, David Furr as Jack Worthing, Dana Ivey as Miss Prism, Tim MacDonald as Merriman, Paul O’Brien as Lane, Charlotte Parry as Cecily Cardew, Sara Topham as Gwendolyn, and Paxton Whitehead as Reverend Chausible.
The design team includes Desmond Heeley (sets & costumes), Duane Schuler (lights) and Drew Levy (sound).

The filming is a collaborative project by Roundabout Theatre Company, L.A. Theatre Works and BY Experience.

New York venues include Cinema Arts Center (Huntington, NY) – June 2; Cinema 123 (New York, NY) – June 2, 5; Jacob Burns Film Center (Pleasantville, NY) – June 22; John Drew Theater at Guild Hall (East Hampton, NY) – June 2; Kew Gardens Cinemas (Queens, NY) – June 2 two showings; Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (New York, NY) – June 11; Spectrum 8 Theatres (Albany, NY) – June 2, 5, 12, 13; Staller Center, SUNY Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY) – June 2; and Time & Space Limited (Hudson, NY) – June 2, 4, 11, 12.

A trailer, as well as a full list of participating cinemas, exhibition dates and ticket prices is available at www.EarnestHD.com.

For more information on the Broadway production of The Importance of Being Earnest, click here.