Off-Broadway's The Temperamentals, Starring Michael Urie, Transfers to New World Stages

Off-Broadway's critically acclaimed gay rights drama The Temperamentals, which previously ran at the Barrow Group Studio Theater, will transfer to New World Stages this winter, producers have announced. The play, which starred TV's Ugly Betty scene stealer Michael Urie and Broadway's current In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play trouper Thomas Jay Ryan, will begin previews February 8 with opening night set for February 28. Both stars will transfer with the show, written by Jon Marans and directed by Jonathan Silverstein.

“Temperamental’ was a code word for “homosexual” in the early 1950s, part of a created language of secret words that gay men used to communicate. The play tells the story of two men, communist Harry Hay (Ryan) and young Viennese refugee and designer Rudi Gernreich (Urie), weaving together the personal and the political to tell a relatively unknown chapter in gay history. The show explores the deepening relationship between the two as they build the first gay rights organization in the United States. The play’s characters consist of the actual men who founded the Mattachine Society, as well as prominent figures of the time such as Frank Tavener of the House Un-American Committee and the director Vincente Minnelli.

Urie is best known to audiences as Marc St. James on the hit series Ugly Betty. Additional screen credits include Beverly Hills Chihuahua, WTC View, Kat Plus One and Undressed. A graduate of Juilliard, the actor recently appeared in Los Angeles’ Hayworth Theatre’s one-night-only staging of Howard Ashman’s Dreamstuff, playing opposite Eden Espinosa, Fred Willard and David Blue.

Ryan can currently be seen in his Broadway debut in In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play. Off-Broadway, he has been seen in The Misanthrope, Celebration/The Room, Juno and the Paycock, Sin, Venus and This Thing of Darkness. Film credits include Dream Boy, Strange Culture, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Book of Life and Henry Fool.

The Temperamentals enjoyed a sold-out and extended run during its time at the Barrow Group Studio Theater, opening in May 4, 2009, and closing on August 23.

Daryl Roth and Stacy Shane will produce the transfer. Additional casting will be announced shortly, though original cast members Tom Beckett, Matthew Schneck and Sam Breslin Wright are in talks to return.