Julie Halston to Guest Star in Second Episode of Stage Soap The Cartells

Actress and comedienne Julie Halston will guest-star as Judy Chocolates in the second weekly installment of Douglas Carter Beane's stage soap opera The Cartells on October 23. The four-part series began Monday, October 16, and plays every Monday through November 6 at Comix in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. Halston plays the queen of the Republican Boiler Room, an operation set up by Karl Rove that cold-calls people and supposedly sells them glamorous homes in beautiful parts of the country.

Directed by Carl Andress, The Cartells is a joint production of Drama Dept. and Comix. As previously reported, the stage soap is about a wealthy oil family having too much fun in an Aaron Spelling kind of way. For those audience members who miss an episode, each weekly performance will begin with "Previously on The Cartells…"

The cast includes Vanessa Aspillaga as Margarita Cartell the number one wife, Elizabeth Berkley as Gamine Cartell the reckless daughter, Keith Davis as Suitor the Biloxi millionaire, Joanna Gleason as Titsiana Cartell the estranged wife, Jason Butler Harner as Sterling Cartell the younger son, Peter Frechette as Cravin Cartell the patriarch, Peter Hermann as Dank Sellars the media heir, Cady Huffman as Karma Smugg Cartell the new wife, Brian d'Arcy James as Cronin Cartell the number one son, Pedro Pascal as Emanuel the lover, David Rakoff as Hubris the butler, Kristen Schaal as Skeeter Jo Smugg the new wife's trailer trash daughter and Joey Slotnick as Samson Solomon the attorney.