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Mary Beth Peil and Pamela Payton-Wright will star in the world premiere production of Joan Vail Thorne's The Things You Least Expect at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, October 3-29. The show will be directed by the company's artistic director, David Saint. Additional information on casting and the creative team will be announced shortly.

The play concerns Claire (Peil), a recent widow who embarks on a European vacation and falls in love with a much younger man. Payton-Wright will play Claire's sister, Myra. Thorne's other plays include The Exact Center of the Universe and Signs and Wonders.

Peil received a Tony Award nomination for the 1985 revival of The King and I. She was also seen on Broadway in the 2003 revival of Nine, and she received an Obie Award in 1995 for her work in three shows: Missing Persons, A Cheever Evening, and The Naked Truth. More recently, Peil has appeared Off-Broadway in the New York Theater Workshop's production of Hedda Gabler and the Atlantic Theater Company's production of Harold Pinter's Celebration and The Room. She is well known to television audiences for her role of Gramm on Dawson's Creek.

Payton-Wright is currently starring in A.R. Gurney's Indian Blood at Primary Stages. Her many Broadway credits include Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Night of the Iguana, M. Butterfly, The Glass Menagerie, and Mourning Becomes Electra, for which she won a Drama Desk Award. She is well known to fans of the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live for her role of Addie Cramer.