Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet Extends Off-Broadway

Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet, starring Santino Fontana and Joanna Gleason, has extended its off-Broadway run at the Laura Pels Theatre by one week. The Roundabout Theatre Company production, which began performances on September 28 directed by Peter DuBois, was originally scheduled to run through December 23, 2011. It will now close on January 1, 2012.

In addition to Gleason and Fontana, the cast includes Yusef Bulos, Jonathan Louis Dent, Lizbeth Mackay, Dee Nelson, Chris Perfetti and Charles Socarides.

Sons of the Prophet follows a Lebanese family in Pennsylvania who never loses their sense of humor as they struggle with crazy bosses, medical mysteries and other issues. With unexplained chronic pain and the fate of his reeling family on his shoulders, Joseph Douaihy (Fontana) finds his health, sanity and insurance premium on the line. In an age when modern medicine has a cure for just about everything, Sons of the Prophet takes a look at how we cope with wounds that just won't heal.

Sons of the Prophet is Karam’s second collaboration with the Roundabout. It was commissioned following the success of his play Speech & Debate, the inaugural production of Roundabout Underground. He has recently been commissioned to write a third piece for the company, as part of its New Play Initiative. “I’ve always viewed Sons of the Prophet as the first part of a larger trilogy—not three plays dependent on each other, but three stand-alone plays connected by theme, and likely, further adventures of the Douaihy family,” Karam said in a statement. No details of that project have yet been announced.