Lewis J. Stadlen and Jonny Orsini Join Nathan Lane in Broadway’s The Nance

Lewis J. Stadlen and Jonny Orsini will join Nathan Lane in Douglas Carter Beane’s new Broadway play The Nance. Directed by Tony winner Jack O’Brien, the Lincoln Center Theater production will begin previews at the Lyceum Theater on March 21, with an official opening night set for April 15. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

The play's title refers to a derogatory slang word for effeminate men and campy homosexual characters typically played by straight men in 1930s burlesque shows. Lane will play Chauncey Miles, a gay nance performer working during the period when New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was trying to ban burlesque. Integrating burlesque sketches into the drama, The Nance paints the portrait of a homosexual man, living and working in the secretive and dangerous gay world of 1930s New York, whose outrageous antics on the burlesque stage stand in marked contrast to his messy offstage life.

Stadlen is a two-time Tony nominee for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Candide. He has appeared with Nathan Lane in the Broadway productions of The Man Who Came To Dinner, Laughter on the 23rd Floor and Forum. His other Broadway credits include The People in the Picture, The Producers, 45 Seconds From Broadway, The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys and Minnie’s Boys. His film and TV credits include Smash, In & Out, To Be or Not to Be, I.Q, The Verdict, Serpico and The Sopranos.

Orsini will make his Broadway debut in The Nance. He has appeared off-Broadway in An Early History of Fire, Be a Good Little Widow and Banished Children of Eve. Orsini has had starring roles in the films Beneath, Generation Um, Rocksteady and Eddie and Paul. He will be featured in the upcoming Darren Criss/Kristen Wiig movie Girl Most Likely.