Denham, O’Toole, Thomas, Waterston Set for Adam Rapp’s Kindness

Christopher Denham has been cast in Playwrights Horizons’ world premiere production of Adam Rapp’s Kindness, to begin performances on September 25, with an official opening on October 13. Denham appeared in Rapp’s Red Light Winter Off-Broadway.

Rapp will direct the work, which also stars Annette O’Toole, Ray Anthony Thomas, and Katherine Waterston. The play concerns an ailing mother and her teenage son who flee Illinois and a crumbling marriage for the relative calm and safety of a midtown Manhattan hotel. The show’s creative team will include Lauren Helpern (sets), Daphne Javitch (costumes), Mary Louise Geiger (lighting), and Eric Shim (sound).

The company’s season will begin with Dylan McDermott, Scott Cohen, Aya Cash, Brian J. Smith, and Maura Tierney in the world premiere of Nicky Silver’s Three Changes on August 22. The production, to be directed by Tony Award nominee Wilson Milam, is about an Upper West Side couple whose comfortable marriage is disrupted when the husband’s wayward brother arrives from Hollywood.

Tony Award winner Victoria Clark will star in Craig Lucas’ Prayer for My Enemy, to debut on November 14, under the direction of Tony winner Bartlett Sher. The show, which will also star Cassie Beck, Jonathan Groff, and Skipp Sudduth, is about two childhood friends who are unexpectedly reunited as adults. Additional casting and creative team will be announced.

The theater’s fourth play, which begins previews on February 6, 2009, will be Evan Smith’s The Savannah Disputation, to star Dana Ivey and Marylouise Burke under the direction of Walter Bobbie. The play concerns Margaret, a susceptible Catholic Spinster, whose faith begins to waiver — much to the chagrin of her feisty sister — after she admits a Pentecostal missionary into her home.

Up next will be the world premiere of Christina Anderson’s Inked Baby, which begins previews on March 5. The play, to be directed by Kate Whoriskey, is about a woman who enlists the aid of her sister to make the child she and her husband can’t.

The season will conclude in May with Theresa Rebeck’s Our House, to be directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer, a comedy about a power-hungry TV mogul faced with dwindling ratings who installs America’s favorite news anchor as host of a popular reality show.

For more information, visit www.playwrightshorizons.org.