Polly Draper Replaces Dana Reeve in Broadway's Brooklyn Boy

Polly Draper has joined the cast of the South Coast Repertory/Manhattan Theatre Club production of Donald Margulies' Brooklyn Boy, according to a production spokesperson. She is replacing Dana Reeve, who left the company last month for personal reasons.

Draper, best known for her Emmy-nominated performance in Thirtysomething, graduated from the Yale School of Drama. Her New York theatrical credits include The Guys, Blur, Closer, Trudy Blue, Imagining Brad, Four Dogs and a Bone, Crazy He Calls Me, Top Girls, Rum and Coke, Sister Mary Ignatius and Ground Zero Club. She also starred in her own play Getting Into Heaven at the Flea Theatre.

Reeve starred in the tryout of Brooklyn Boy as Nina, the ex-wife of central character Eric Weiss played by Adam Arkin, at the South Coast Repertory early this fall. However, on October 10, the day of the final performance in California, Reeve's husband Christopher Reeve died of heart failure. When she withdrew from the upcoming Broadway mounting, the search for a replacement began.

Brooklyn Boy, directed by Daniel Sullivan, is scheduled to run at the Biltmore Theatre from January 13 through March 27 a week longer than previously announced. The play also stars Arkin, Ari Graynor, Arye Gross, Kevin Isola, Mimi Lieber and Allan Miller.