Dana Ivey to Star in Reading of Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine

The Acting Company has announced initial casting for the first reading in the 23rd John McDonald Salon Reading Series, Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine. The reading will take place on Monday, March 18 at 7pm at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater.

Directed by Kimberly Senior, the cast of Watch on the Rhine will feature five-time Tony nominee Dana Ivey as Fanny Farrelly, Tony nominee Michael Hayden (All My Sons) as Kurt Muller, John Skelley (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) as David Farrelly, and J. Anthony Crane (The Country House) as Teck De Brancovis. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Not seen in New York since its 1980 Broadway revival, Watch on the Rhine is part drawing room comedy, part political thriller. The play follows anti-fascist German engineer Kurt Muller, his American-born wife Sara, and their three children as they return to Washington, D.C. after years spent in Europe resisting the rising Nazi threat. When a Romanian house guest who is a Nazi supporter discovers Kurt's identity, he threatens to expose him. Published in 1941 by Lillian Hellman, a brilliant activist who was ahead of her time, this celebrated play is a timely examination of moral obligation and sacrifice.

The John McDonald Salon Reading Series will present five readings in 2019, continuing with Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark on May 20 at the Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons. Jessica Swale's Olivier Award-winning comedy Nell Gwynn will follow on June 24 at the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizon. Remaining titles will include Nambi E. Kelley's Jazz (August 6), from the novel by Toni Morrison, and an original evening of collected letters curated by Dakin Matthews, Letters from Prison (August 13), both playing at the Duke on 42nd Street.