Sam Robards Joins Cast of Absurd Person Singular

It has just been announced that Sam Robards will join the cast of the upcoming Broadway revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular, directed by John Tillinger, and presented by Manhattan Theatre Club. He joins the previously announced Mireille Enos, Clea Lewis, Alan Ruck, Deborah Rush, and Paxton Whitehead. Previews will begin at the Biltmore Theater on September 22 and the show will open officially on October 18.

Ayckbourn’s play concerns three couples in three kitchens on three successive Christmas Eves. The original London production opened in 1973 and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy; the first Broadway production opened in October 1974 and ran for nearly 600 performances.

Robards made his Broadway debut as Gustav Eberson in the Roundabout’s revival of Arthur Miller’s The Man Who Had All The Luck (Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play). Enos received a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Honey in the current revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Lewis’s Off-Broadway credits include Last Easter and Writer’s Block, and she had a major role on the TV sitcom Ellen. Ruck, who co-starred in the sitcom Spin City, was most recently seen on Broadway as Leo Bloom in The Producers. Rush was a Tony nominee for the original Broadway production of Noises Off. Whitehead, who also appeared in Noises Off, has a Broadway career that spans more than 40 years; he was Tony-nominated for his performance in the 1981 revival of Camelot.

Tillinger has directed more than 20 Broadway plays, earning a Tony nomination for Loot. Among his other credits are A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The Changing Room, and Inherit the Wind. For MTC, he has previously helmed Ayckbourn’s Comic Potential and House and Garden.

The MTC production of Absurd Person Singular will feature sets by John Lee Beatty, costumes by Jane Greenwood, and lighting by Brian McDevitt.