Martha Plimpton Joins Cast of B'way's Upcoming Shining City

Martha Plimpton will join Brían F. O'Byrne and Oliver Platt in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Conor McPherson's Shining City, according to a production spokesperson. The show, directed by Robert Falls, is scheduled to begin previews at the Biltmore Theatre on April 13.

Plimpton appeared off-Broadway last season in The False Servant and Hurlyburly. She earned a 2002 Obie Award and a Lucille Lortel nomination for her performance in the Atlantic Theater Company production of Hobson's Choice. Plimpton made her stage debut at age eight in the Public Theater production of The Haggadah. She also appeared off-Broadway in Suburbia, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Runaways, Boston Marriage and Flesh and Blood. Her one Broadway credit is the short-lived play, Sixteen Wounded. Plimpton has been a Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble member since 1998, where she directed Absolution and starred in productions of Hedda Gabler, The Glass Menagerie, The Playboy of the Western World and The Libertine. She rose to prominence in the mid-1980s after acclaimed turns in the films The River Rat and Running on Empty. Over the years, she has been a constant presence in Hollywood, appearing in over 30 films. Her big screen credits include The Goonies, Parenthood, Samantha, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Beautiful Girls, I Shot Andy Warhol, Pecker and 200 Cigarettes.

Shining City focuses on John Platt, a guilt-ridden man who visits a therapist, Ian O'Byrne, after seeing the ghost of his recently deceased wife. What starts out as an everyday exchange becomes a gripping struggle to survive--a struggle that will change both men for the rest of their lives. Plimpton will play Neasa, a woman who finds herself caught in the middle of Ian's personal turmoil.

Shining City is scheduled to open on the Great White Way on May 3.