Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi to Play Limited Run at Rattlestick

Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi will return to the New York stage. The production, directed by Nic Arnzen, will honor the tenth anniversary of the play's opening at the Manhattan Theatre Club and Matthew Shepard, whose brutal murder occurred just 24 hours prior to Corpus Christi's world premiere in 1998. Previews begin October 14 at the Rattlesnake Theatre and open on October 15. The limited engagement will close on October 26.

A contemporary passion play that has Jesus and the Apostles as gay men living in modern-day Texas, Corpus Christi's original run opened to intense protest from those that considered the work blasphemous.

The cast features the Arnzen the director, Amanda Axelrod, Jan Ambler, James Brandon, Steve Callahan, Melissa Caulfield, Elizabeth Cava, Mark Colbert, Steve Hasley, Molly O'Leary, David Pevsner, Sheilagh Polk, Scott Presley and Suzanne Santos.

This version of Corpus Christi is by the Los Angeles-based 108 Productions, which began performing the piece over two years ago and brought the show across the country and abroad to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival. Proceeds from the New York run will benefit The Matthew Shepard Foundation.