Wiest, Ritter, Durning & Hoffmann to Headline Third at Lincoln Center

Dianne Wiest, Jason Ritter, Charles Durning and Gaby Hoffmann will star in the Lincoln Center Theater production of Wendy Wasserstein's Third. The show is set to begin performances at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre on September 29 in preparation for an October 24 opening, according to a production spokesperson.

"She hasn't quite finished writing it yet," Wiest told Broadway.com. "But it's going to be fabulous. I'm very excited for it."

Wiest, who recently appeared off-Broadway in Memory House at Playwrights Horizons, won Academy Awards for her performances in Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway. Wiest most recently appeared on Broadway during the 2002-2003 theatrical season's starry staging of Salome and has also appeared on the Great White Way in Solitaire, Frankenstein, Othello, Beyond Therapy and In the Summer House . She won a Theatre World Award and an Obie Award for her performance in The Art of Dining and another Obie for both Other Places and Serenading Louie.

Ritter is best known for playing the wheelchair-bound Kevin Girardi in the recently canceled television series Joan of Arcadia. His theatrical credits include The Beginning of August off-Broadway and the world premiere of Neil LaBute's The Distance from Here at London's Almeida Theatre. His film credits include Mumford, Swimfan, Freddy vs. Jason and Raise Your Voice.

Durning won a 1990 Best Featured Actor in a Play Tony Award for his performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. His other Broadway credits include Drat! The Cat!, The Happy Time, That Championship Season, In The Boom Boom Room, The Au Pair Man, Knock Knock, Inherit the Wind, The Gin Game and Gore Vidal's The Best Man. He was nominated for supporting actor Oscars for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1983 and To Be or Not to Be in 1984. He is also a Golden Globe Award winner, having won for his featured role in the miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts.

A child actor, Hoffmann is best known for her performances on the big screen. Her film credits include Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck, This is My Life, Sleepless in Seattle, The Man Without a Face, Now and Then, Volcano, 200 Cigarettes, Black and White and You Can Count on Me. She appeared on the New York stage last year in the one-night-only benefit The 24 Hour Plays. Before Third, she will appear in The Sugar Syndrome at the Williamstown Theatre Festival from July 27 through August 7.

Third centers on a college literary professor Wiest who accuses a campus jock Ritter of plagiarizing when he turns in a worthwhile analysis of King Lear. The play was presented as part of an evening of two one-acts the other play is Welcome to My Rash at the Theater J in Washington, D.C. last year.