Dennehy Set for Falls-Helmed Hughie in Chicago
Hughie begins as Erie Smith Dennehy, a small-time gambler, comes off of a four-day drinking binge and glides into a sleazy hotel on New York's West Side. He strikes up a one-sided conversation with the new night clerk Grifasi, a replacement for Hughie, whose funeral Erie attended the previous week. Hoping to pique the interest of the new clerk, Erie freely reminisces about Hughie who provided a willing ear for Erie's elaborate pipedreams about playing the horses and living the high life.
Dennehy and Grifasi appeared in Hughie last spring for the Trinity Repertory Company, but that mounting part of a double-bill with A Pound on Demand was directed by Catherine Baker Steindler, not Falls.
Dennehy worked with Falls on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, both of which appeared at the Goodman and then transferred to Broadway, winning Dennehy Best Actor Tony Awards. He also starred in the director's productions of O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet and The Iceman Cometh at the Goodman.
Grifasi has appeared on Broadway in Dinner at Eight, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Happy End, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The 1940's Radio Hour and The Play's the Thing.
Hughie is scheduled to officially open on October 25.