The Velocity of Autumn, Starring Estelle Parsons & Stephen Spinella, Sets Dates at the Booth Theatre

Broadway openings come to those who wait! After calling off their 2013 spring run last season, Eric Coble’s The Velocity of Autumn will now begin performances April 1, 2014 at Broadway’s Booth Theatre. After a sold-out run at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage this September, the production is now slated to open April 21. Directed by Molly Smith, the new play stars Oscar winner Estelle Parsons and two-time Tony winner Stephen Spinella.

The Velocity of Autumn tells the story of Alexandra (Parsons), a 79-year-old artist in a showdown with her family over where she’ll spend her remaining years. Alexandra has barricaded herself in her Brooklyn Brownstone with enough Molotov cocktails to take out the block, but when her estranged son Chris (Spinella) crawls through her second-floor window, he becomes the family’s unlikely mediator. The Velocity of Autumn premiered at Boise Contemporary Theatre in Idaho in 2011.

Parsons last appeared on Broadway in Nice Work If You Can Get It. She garnered Tony nominations for The Seven Descents of Myrtle, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Miss Margarida’s Way and Morning’s at Seven. Her many film and TV credits include Roseanne, Watermelon Man, I Never Sang For My Father, Dick Tracy, Boys on the Side, A Memory of Two Mondays and Bonnie and Clyde, for which she won an Oscar.

Spinella won Tony Awards for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika. His additional Broadway credits include Our Town, Spring Awakening, A View From the Bridge, Electra and James Joyce’s The Dead. His film and TV credits include Milk, Lincoln, Rubber, The Jackal, Royal Pains and Desperate Housewives.

The Velocity of Autumn will include set design by Eugene Lee, costume design by Linda Cho, lighting design by Rui Rita and sound design by Darron L. West.