Sierra Boggess Will Star in World Premiere Adaptation of The Age of Innocence
(© T. Charles Erickson)
McCarter Theatre Center will open its season with the world premiere adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, running September 7-October 7 with an opening on September 15. Adapted by Oscar and Tony nominee Douglas McGrath (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), the play is directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Junk).
The cast includes four-time Tony Award winner Boyd Gaines as the Old Gentleman, Broadway's Sierra Boggess as Countess Ellen Olenska, Helen Cespedes as May Welland, and Andrew Veenstra as Newland Archer, and Darrie Lawrence, Deirdre Madigan, Haviland Morris, Sara Norton, Dan Owens, Josh Salt, Sara Schwab, Tony Ward, and Alessandro Gian Viviano. The cast is joined onstage for each performance by pianist Yan Li.
Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel asks the questions "When is it wrong to love someone?" and "Is love the highest ideal, or is kindness and duty even greater than love?" The work is described as "romantic and heartbreakingly unsentimental in its portrayal of a rigid society where 'people dreaded scandal more than disease.' "
The design team includes Tony Award winners John Lee Beatty (set design), Linda Cho (costume design), Ben Stanton (lighting design), Mark Bennett (original music and sound), Chuck LaPointe (wig and hair design), and Peter Pucci (choreography).
