Nina Arianda & Sam Rockwell to Headline Fool for Love on Broadway; David Lindsay-Abaire Premieres New Comedy Off-B’way

Manhattan Theatre Club has two new productions on the horizon: the Broadway debut of Sam Shepard’s 1982 play Fool for Love, starring Tony winner Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell (reprising their roles from the summer’s Williamstown Theatre Festival production), and a new comedy from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire.

Fool for Love, directed by Daniel Aukin, explores the tangled relationship of two former lovers in a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave Desert. It will begin performances at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on September 15 with opening night set for October 8.

Arianda won a Tony Award for her performance in MTC’s Venus in Fur was nominated for Born YesterdayTales from Red Vienna off-Broadway. Her film and TV credits include The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Midnight in Paris, Tower Heist, Win Win, Higher Ground, 30 Rock and The Good Wife. Rockwell appeared on Broadway in A Behanding in Spokane. He appeared off-Broadway in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Goose-Pimples and Face Divided. His film credits include Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Green Mile, Frost/Nixon, Iron Man 2, Cowboys & Aliens and the upcoming Poltergeist.

Lindsay-Abaire’s  Ripcord, directed by David Hyde Pierce and starring Tony winner Mary-Louise Wilson and Marylouise Burke, will begin performances at New York City Center – Stage I on September 29 and open on October 20.

The comedy is set in the Bristol Place Assisted Living Facility, where a cantankerous resident (Wilson) is forced to share her quarters with an overly chipper new arrival (Burke).

Wilson won a Tony Award for Grey Gardens and was nominated for the last revival of Cabaret. Her other stage credits include 4,000 Miles, Full Gallop, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, Bosoms and Neglect and The Beard of Avon. Burke appeared in Lindsay–Abaire’s Fuddy Meers, Wonder of the World and Kimberly Akimbo. Her Broadway credits include Into the Woods, Is He Dead? and the upcoming Fish in the Dark.

Additional casting for both shows will be announced in the coming weeks.