Richard Easton to Star in David Ives' New Jerusalem at CSC

Tony winner Richard Easton has signed on to star in the world premiere of David Ives' New Jerusalem at Classic Stage Company. Directed by Walter Bobbie and co-starring Jeremy Strong, the play will begin previews on December 28 and open on January 13, 2008, continuing at CSC's off-Broadway home through February 3. Also featured in the cast are Fyvush Finkel, David Garrison, Jenn Harris, Michael Izquierdo and Natalia Payne.

Focusing on the 1656 interrogation of the noted philosopher Baruch De Spinoza Strong by the Jewish community of Amsterdam for his controversial ideas, New Jerusalem examines the clash between religion and modernity that Jews, Christians and Muslims are still, some 350 years later, struggling to reconcile.

Easton appeared last season the Tony Award-winning production of The Coast of Utopia and won the 2002 Best Actor Tony for his performance in Stoppard's The Invention of Love. Other recent New York stage appearances include the title role in Henry IV, The Rivals and Noises Off.

Strong most recently appeared at Playwrights Horizons in Frank's Home and at Manhattan Theater Club in Defiance.

Garrison most recently appeared on Broadway in Wicked. Other Broadway credits include Titanic, Torch Song Trilogy, Bells Are Ringing and a Tony-nominated performance in A Day In Hollywood/A Night In the Ukraine. On television, he starred in Married With Children.

Finkel, one of the legendary performers of the New York Yiddish theater movement for more than four decades, won an Emmy Award for his performance as Douglas Wambaugh in Picket Fences. In 1970, he assumed the role of Tevye in the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof and later starred on Broadway in Cafe Crown.

New Jerusalem features set design by John Lee Beatty, lighting by Ken Billington and costumes by Anita Yavich.