Atlantic Theater's 2016-2017 Season to Include Rebecca Hall, World Premieres from David Yazbek & David Mamet

The 2016-17 Atlantic Theater season will welcome actress Rebecca Hall back to the New York stage in Clare Lizzimore's dark comedy Animal. A new David Mamet play joins Atlantic's 31st roster as well, which includes the previously announced world premiere of The Band's Visit by David Yazbeck and Itamar Moses.

Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe will helm the world premiere of George Brant's Marie and Rosetta, which starts off the off-Broadway season in August. The play with music chronicles Sister Rosetta Tharpe's first rehearsal with a young protégée, Marie Knight, as they prepare to embark on a tour that would establish them as one of the great duet teams in musical history. A huge influence on Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix, Tharpe was a legend in her time, bringing fierce guitar playing and swing to gospel music; however, she ended up buried in an unmarked grave in Philadelphia.

The Band’s Visit will hit the Linda Gross Theater stage in November. Based on the screenplay by Eran Kolirin, Yazbek and Moses' highly-anticipated musical follows members of an Egyptian Police band who, after a mix-up at the Israeli border, are sent to a remote village in the desert instead of their expected concert venue. They are quickly welcomed by the locals and form an unlikely and unexpected relationship. As previously reported, David Cromer will direct, stepping in for Hal Prince.

Paola Lázaro, Atlantic's 2016-17 playwright in residence, will kick of January 2017 at Atlantic Stage 2 with Tell Hector I Miss Him. The play welcomes audiences to Puerto Rico's La Perla, the barrio and the underbelly that lies under the tourism and behind the fort walls.

Pepe will also direct the world premiere of Atlantic Theater co-founder David Mamet's new, yet to be titled play written specifically for the off-Broadway company's ensemble. Performances will begin in February 2017 in the Linda Gross Theater.

Golden Globe nominee Hall will star in Animal, Lizzmore's play about the underside of domesticity, the complexity of the brain in chaos and the thin line between sinking and survival. Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, the play will premiere at Atlantic Stage 2 in May 2017.

Additionally, Atlantic For Kids' season launches this fall with Frozen songwriter and EGOT-er Robert Lopez' New York premiere of 1001 Nights: A Love Story about Loving Stories. In the playful adaptation of the Arabian Nights fairy tales, a princess uses her wits to save a kingdom from an evil decree as she spins tale after tale for a narrow-minded king. The family-friendly show is co-written and directed by Adam Koplan.

One additional mainstage and a second Atlantic For Kids production, as well as additional cast and creative teams, will be announced at a later date.