Danner, Gugino to Star in Suddenly Last Summer; Molina Set for Howard Katz

Blythe Danner and Carla Gugino will kick off the Roundabout Theatre Company's off-Broadway season at the Laura Pels Theatre with a revival of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, directed by Mark Brokaw. The production will begin previews on October 20. Alfred Molina will follow in the American premiere of Patrick Marber's Howard Katz, directed by Doug Hughes. Previews will begin February 2, 2007. The Roundabout's final off-Broadway production of the season will be the American premiere of Brian Friel's The Home Place, directed by Joe Dowling and opening in the spring/summer of 2007.

Danner stars as the formidable Mrs. Venable in Williams' psychological drama, an aging widow distraught over the mysterious death of her son. When the young cousin traveling with him, played by Gugino, begins raising scandalous allegations, Mrs. Venable will stop at nothing to preserve her son's reputation. Suddenly Last Summer premiered off-Broadway on January 7, 1958, as part of Garden District, a double-bill with Williams' Something Unspoken. In 1959 the play was adapted into a screenplay by Gore Vidal and Williams and made into a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift.

Suddenly Last Summer marks Danner's fourth production with Roundabout, where she last starred as Phyllis in Steven Sondheim's Follies, a performance that earned a Tony nomination. She also received Tony nominations for playing Blanche Du Bois in a 1988 revival of Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Aidan Quinn's Stanley and for the original Broadway production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal. She won a 1970 Tony for her Broadway debut performance in Butterflies Are Free. Other notable theater credits include playing Beatrice opposite Kevin Kline's Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing in Central Park and 20 years of work at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. On the small screen, Danner won a 2005 Emmy for playing matriarch Izzy Huffstodt in Huff and had a recurring role as Marilyn Truman in Will and Grace.

Gugino made her New York stage debut in the Roundabout's 2004 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's After the Fall. Her many film credits include Sin City, the Spy Kids series, The Singing Detective and the upcoming Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller and American Gangster with Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington. She will have a six-episode arc in the upcoming season of HBO's Entourage.

Suddenly Last Summer has set an official opening date of November 15 and will run through January 21, 2007.

Howard Katz tells the story of a once-powerful, hard-hearted showbiz agent Molina who has lost everything he ever valued: his career, his family and his faith. In a series of haunting flashbacks, the play traces the story of the mighty Katz, capturing a man free-falling yet determinedly clinging to life. The play premiered at London's Royal National Theatre in June 2001.

Molina earned a 2004 Tony nomination for playing Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and co-starred on Broadway in Art in 1998. He made his Roundabout debut in the American premiere of Brian Friel's Molly Sweeney during the 1995-96 season. In Los Angeles, he co-starred with Annette Bening in The Cherry Orchard. On the London stage, he earned Olivier Award nominations for Oklahoma! and Speed the Plow and starred in Night of the Iguana and Serious Money. His varied film credits include The Da Vinci Code, Spider-Man 2, Frida, Identity, and Chocolat. Upcoming film releases include Hoax, The Little Traitor and an HBO film version of As You Like It, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Howard Katz will officially open off-Broadway on March 8, 2007, and run through April 29.