The full cast and creative team has been announced for the previously reported Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire. Halley Feiffer will headline the off-Broadway show, directed by Trip Cullman, which will now begin performances on April 10. Opening night is set for April 27 at Second Stage Theatre.
Joining Feiffer (The House of Blue Leaves), will be Daniel Eric Gold (Ugly Betty), Carter Hudson (The Whipping Man), John Noble (TV’s Fringe), and Charlayne Woodard (Ain’t Misbehavin’). The production will feature scenic design by Anna Louizos, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski and sound design by Jill BC Du Boff.
The Substance of Fire follows the story of a family united by a proud past but facing an uncertain future. Isaac Geldhart, the volatile and brilliant patriarch of his family publishing house, is stubbornly holding on to his place at the head of the company while his three children try to convince him to publish a desperately needed best-seller. Confronted with a changing literary landscape and potential takeover of the company, the Geldhart children must either come to terms with their father and band together or break apart and forfeit the legacy he risked everything to build.
This will be the first New York staging of The Substance of Fire since its original off-Broadway production 23 years ago starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Ron Rifkin and directed by Daniel Sullivan. It subsequently transferred to Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theatre and was also made into a 1996 film starring Tony Goldwyn, Parker and Rifkin.