Ambrose, Gazzara, Hadary, Wanamaker, et al. Set for Awake and Sing!

Lauren Ambrose, Ned Eisenberg, Ben Gazzara, Jonathan Hadary, Peter Kybart, Pablo Schreiber, Richard Topol, and Zoe Wanamaker will star in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Clifford Odets’ 1935 drama Awake and Sing! at the Belasco Theatre. Previews will begin on March 23 in advance of an official opening on April 17.

The show’s creative team will be the same as that of the Lincoln Center production of The Light in the Piazza: director Bartlett Sher, set designer Michael Yeargan, costume designer Catherine Zuber, and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind.

Awake and Sing! tells the story of a Jewish family in the Bronx that has fallen on hard times during the Depression. The original Group Theater production played more than 200 performances at the Belasco, and the Group brought the show back for another, brief Broadway engagement in 1939. The last Broadway revival of the play was in 1984 at Circle in the Square, directed by Ted Mann and starring Nancy Marchand, Harry Hamlin, Dick Latessa, and Frances McDormand.

Ambrose, who will be making her New York stage debut in Awake and Sing!, is best known for her role of Claire on HBO’s Six Feet Under. Eisenberg’s New York stage credits include The Green Bird and King John. Gazzara, a three-time Tony Award nominee, has starred on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and A Hatful of Rain. Hadary received a Tony nomination for his performance in the second Broadway revival Gypsy and was recently seen in All Shook Up.

Kybart appeared on Broadway in Judgment at Nuremberg and The Diary of Anne Frank. Schreiber is currently on stage in Mr. Marmalade at the Laura Pels Theatre. Topol was seen in the recent Broadway production of Julius Caesar that starred Denzel Washington. Wanamaker is a three-time Tony nominee for her work in Electra, Loot, and Piaf, and the winner of London’s Olivier Award for her performance in Once in a Lifetime.