Oscar Winner Helen Hunt to Star in Much Ado About Nothing in L.A.

Academy Award winner Helen Hunt will play Beatrice in the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles' upcoming production of  Much Ado About Nothing. The show will run from December 1 through 19 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre with an opening night set for December 12. Ben Donenberg will direct the production, which will feature music from Lyle Lovett.

Hunt received an Academy Award for As Good as it Gets. She recently starred off-Broadway in Our Town and had previously appeared in the show's 1988 Broadway mounting. Her other Broadway credits include Life (x) 3 and Twelfth Night. She is best known for her long turn on the popular '90s TV series Mad About You. Her other film appearances include Pay it Forward, Cast Away, Dr. T and the Women, Twister, What Women Want, Bobby and Then She Found Me.

The cast will also include Chris Butler, Ramon De Ocampo, Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Grace Gummer, Tom Irwin, Brian Joseph, Greta Jung, Geoffrey Lower, Anthony Manough, Dakin Matthews, Stephen Root, Jared Sakren, Fred Sanders, David Ogden Stiers, Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins. The production crew includes set designer Douglas Rogers, lighting designer Trevor Norton, costume designer Holly Poe Durbin and sound designer Adam Phalen.