Theater News

Karen Ziemba, Tom Hewitt, and More Cast in Adaptation of Heartbreak House

David Staller puts a new spin on George Bernard Shaw’s political comedy.

Karen Ziemba joins the Gingold Theatrical Group production of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House.
Karen Ziemba joins the Gingold Theatrical Group production of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House.
(© David Gordon)

Gingold Theatrical Group has announced casting for George Bernard Shaw's classic comedy Heartbreak House, beginning a limited off-Broadway engagement at Theatre Row on August 28 in advance of a September 9 opening. Performances will run through September 29.

Directed and adapted by artistic director David Staller, the cast features Tony nominee Alison Fraser (The Secret Garden), Tom Hewitt (Chicago), Jeff Hiller (Bright Colors and Bold Patterns), Kimberly Immanuel (Pacific Overtures), Tony nominee Derek Smith (The Green Bird), Raphael Nash Thompson (The Red Letter Plays: F*cking A), Lenny Wolpe (Bullets Over Broadway), and Tony winner Karen Ziemba (Prince of Broadway).

The production is described as follows: "This new adaptation of Shaw's infamous WWI play is set during the first days of the London Blitz (September 1940). We're in London's Ambassadors Theatre when the sirens go off. With the performance interrupted, the cast and audience have joined together to seek shelter in the theater's basement. To entertain the crowd, the cast performs Shaw's most vital paean to resistance and perseverance against tyranny, Heartbreak House. Inspired by actual events as lived by Hermione Gingold during the WWII's darkest days, this revelatory approach will make Shaw's masterpiece more timely than ever."