David Hyde Pierce Set for MTC's Broadway Revival of Accent on Youth
Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce will star in the Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway revival of Samson Raphaelson's 1934 comedy Accent on Youth, which will being previews at the Biltmore Theatre soon to be renamed the Samuel Friedman Theatre in April 2009. Also on deck is the New York premiere of Itamar Moses's Back Back Back, which will get a Stage II production at New York City Center in fall 2008, directed by Daniel Aukin.
Directed by Tony Award-winner Daniel Sullivan, Accent on Youth will feature Pierce as Stephen Gaye, a successful playwright who gets inspired by his young secretary, only to learn to his dismay that the young leading man of his Broadway-bound new work has gotten inspired by her, too. Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks.
Pierce is currently completing his year-long, Tony-winning run in Curtains, which is set to close on June 29 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Best known for his Emmy-winning run as Niles Crane on Frasier, he has appeared on Broadway in Spamalot, The Heidi Chronicles and Beyond Therapy.
Back Back Back finds Moses, the author of last season's MTC hit The Four of Us, taking on baseball's steroid era in a story about three teammates whose clubhouse secrets bring them under federal scrutiny. Casting will be announcing in the coming weeks.
Accent on Youth and Back Back Back join the previously announced MTC 2008-2009 productions: the world premiere of Nick Whitby's To Be Or Not To Be, directed by Casey Nicholoaw; the Broadway premiere of Richard Greenberg's The American Play, directed by David Grindley; the world-premiere of Romantic Poetry, a musical directed by John Patrick Shanley, with music by Henry Kreiger and book & lyrics by Shanley; and the world premiere of Lynn Nottage's Ruined, directed by Kate Whoriskey.
