MTC Announces Additional Casting for Accent on Youth; World Premiere of Pisoni’s Humor Abuse

Lisa Banes, Mary Catherine Garrison, and Byron Jennings will star opposite David Hyde Pierce and Charles Kimbrough in Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Samson Raphaelson’s Accent on Youth, to be directed by Daniel Sullivan, which will play Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, beginning on April 7, with an official opening on April 29. Additional casting is still to be announced.

In the play, successful playwright Stephen Gaye (Pierce) is about to abandon his latest script, when his young secretary offers him new inspiration. With her as his muse, he stages the show on Broadway, only to learn, to his dismay, that the show’s young leading man is being inspired by her too. The show’s creative team includes John Lee Beatty (sets), Jane Greenwood (costumes), Brian MacDevitt (lighting), and Obadiah Eaves (sound).

In other news, MTC will present the world premiere of Humor Abuse, a one-man show starring and co-created by Lorenzo Pisoni, and co-created and directed by Erica Schmidt, to begin previews on February 19 at MTC Stage II at City Center.
The show, which will open officially on March 10, tells the story of Pisoni’s upbringing as a member of the Bay Area’s famed Pickle Family Circus. Pisoni is currently starring as Nugget in the Broadway revival of Equus and previously worked with Schmidt in the Public Theater’s production of As You Like It.

The MTC season will continue with the revival of Richard Greenberg’s The American Plan, starring Mercedes Ruehl, Lily Rabe, and Benjamin Eakeley, on January 2 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, and the New York premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, which is co-produced by Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, which begins previews on January 21 at MTC’s Stage 1 at City Center.

For tickets and information, call 212-399-3030 or visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.