John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle to Star as Second Stage's Mr. and Mrs. Fitch

Tony Award winners John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle will star in Second Stage’s premiere of Douglas Carter Beane’s new comedy Mr. & Mrs. Fitch. The play, directed by Scott Ellis, begins previews on January 26, 2010, at Second Stage, opening on February 22.

Lithgow and Ehle will star as a husband and wife team of gossip columnists who discover great celebrity can appear out of thin air when the social circuit they report from no longer provides enough scandalous news. The production marks playwright Beane’s return to Second Stage, which produced the world premiere of his Tony-nominated play The Little Dog Laughed in 2006, also directed by Ellis.

Lithgow’s long Broadway resume includes The Changing Room, My Fat Friend, Trelawny of the Wells, Secret Service, Once in a Lifetime, Bedroom Farce, M. Butterfly, Sweet Smell of Success, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and, most recently, All My Sons. He is the winner of two Tony Awards, for The Changing Room and Sweet Smell of Success. Off-Broadway, he has been seen in Hamlet, Salt Lake City Skyline and Kaufman at Large. An Academy Award nominee, he has been seen in such films as Terms of Endearment, Footloose, The Manhattan Project, Harry and the Hendersons, Cliffhanger, The Pelican Brief and Dreamgirls, among many others. Lithgow won an Emmy Award for his long run on the comedy series 3rd Rock from the Sun.

Ehle has appeared on Broadway in The Real Thing and The Coast of Utopia series, winning Tony Awards for both. She was also seen in Design for Living. Off-Broadway, she starred in Macbeth at The Public Theater. On London’s West End, she has appeared in The Philadelphia Story, The Real Thing, Tartuffe and Summerfolk. TV credits include the miniseries Pride and Prejudice opposite Colin Firth and The Camomile Lawn.

The production was originally slated to debut at Second Stage in 2008, but was pushed back due to scheduling conflicts for show director Ellis.

Mr. and Mrs. Fitch will feature scenic design by Allen Moyer, costume design by Jeff Mahshie, and lighting design by Kenneth Posner.