John Cunningham to Join Kathleen Chalfant in Off-Broadway Revival of Painting Churches

Broadway vet John Cunningham will join Kathleen Chalfant and Kate Turnbull in Keen Company’s forthcoming revival of Tina Howe’s Painting Churches. Cunningham replaces previously announced star Richard Easton, who has withdrawn “due to a scheduling conflict.” Directed by Keen artistic director Carl Forsman, Painting Churches will begin previews at the Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row on February 14 and open on March 6.

Painting Churches centers on the Church family, led by Franny (Chalfant) and Gardner (Cunningham), who are packing to move to a beach home on Cape Cod. Their daughter, Margaret (Turnbulll), an artist who lives in New York, has arrived to help them pack and paint their portrait. Howe’s play premiered at Second Stage in 1983 in an acclaimed production starring Marian Seldes, George N. Martin and Elizabeth McGovern. The play, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, was filmed for PBS starring Sada Thompson, Donald Moffat and Roxanne Hart.

Cunningham’s many Broadway credits include the original casts of Cabaret, 1776, Company and Sunday in the Park With George, as well as Amour, Design for Living, Titanic, The Sisters Rosenweig and Six Degrees of Separation. Off-Broadway credits include Some Americans Abroad, The Naked Truth, Sylvia, A Cheever Evening, Camping with Henry and Tom and Quartermaine’s Terms.