Richard Thomas and Matthew Morrison Join Jill Clayburgh on Appian Way

Richard Thomas and Matthew Morrison have joined the previously announced star Jill Clayburgh in the cast of the New York premiere production of Richard Greenberg’s comedy A Naked Girl on the Appian Way. Directed by Tony Award-winner Doug Hughes, the play will begin performances at the Roundabout Theater Company’s American Airlines Theatre on September 13, with an official opening slated for October 6. The run is currently set to continue through December 4.

Also in the cast are Susan Kelechi Watson, James Yaegashi, Leslie Ayvazian, and Ann Guilbert; the design team includes John Lee Beatty (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes), Peter Kaczorowski (lights), and David Van Tieghem (sound). A Naked Girl on the Appian Way concerns a successful cookbook author and her husband (played by Clayburgh and Thomas) whose children return from a year of European travel with very surprising news. Greenberg’s previous plays include Take Me Out, The Dazzle, Three Days of Rain, The Violet Hour, and Eastern Standard.

Hughes is currently represented on the New York stage by Doubt, for which he won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Director, and The Paris Letter. His previous credits include Frozen, McReele, Last Easter, and The Grey Zone. He is scheduled to direct the Roundabout’s next mainstage production: A Touch of the Poet, starring Gabriel Byrne.

Clayburgh appeared in the original Broadway productions of Jumpers, Pippin and The Rothschilds. She was nominated for two Academy Awards for her starring roles in An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over, and she received an Emmy nomination for the TV movie Hustling. Next year, she will be seen as Mrs. Banks in the Broadway revival of Barefoot in the Park (with Patrick Wilson and Amanda Peet) and in the film Running With Scissors (with Annette Bening, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Joseph Fiennes).

Thomas recently appeared in the Shakespeare in the Park production of As You Like It and in the Broadway production of Democracy. Among his other New York stage credits are Fifth of July, Tiny Alice, and The Stendhal Syndrome. His best-known role is that of John-Boy Walton on the hit TV series The Waltons, for which he earned an Emmy Award.

Morrison is currently appearing as Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza, for which performance he received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. He will leave that show on August 28 (no replacement has yet been named). Morrison created the role of Link Larkin in Hairspray, and he will be seen as Sir Harry in the upcoming TV remake of Once Upon a Mattress. It has also been rumored that he will be playing the title role in the upcoming Disney stage musical Tarzan, which will open in the spring of 2006.

Watson’s previous credits include the Public Theater production of The Story and a recurring role in the NBC series Third Watch. Yaegashi was seen in Take Me Out and in the Public Theater’s recent production of Richard III. Ayvazian has starred in such plays as Lost in Yonkers and is a well-regarded playwright whose works include Nine Armenians. Guilbert is best known for her roles as Millie Helper on TV’s The Dick Van Dyke Show and Yetta on The Nanny.