John C. Reilly Headed Off-Broadway in Tale of 2 Cities

Oscar- and Tony-nominated actor John C. Reilly will be featured in Heather Woodbury's Tale of 2 Cities, which will receive its world premiere October 12 at Performance Space 122, running through October 29. Dudley Saunders will direct an ensemble cast that also includes Woodbury, Winsome Brown, Michael Escamilla, Tracey Leigh, Diane Rodriguez, Ed Vassallo and Heather Woo.

Tale of 2 Cities is a time-traversing story about the Brooklyn Dodgers' relocation to Los Angeles in 1957 and its reverberating effects on three generations of characters from both cities. The interracial cast plays multiple roles ranging from 1940s Jewish leftists to contemporary Latino hipsters as this tale of historic and contemporary uprooting and urban erasure unfolds. Tale of 2 Cities is described as a timely and sweeping story of urban displacement—a meta-mix of music, memory and overlapping histories of both vanished and vanishing communities.

The show was jointly commissioned by P.S. 122 and UCLA Live, and is to be presented as two full-length parts, Grifters, Drifters and Dodgers and Mega Mixicana Waltz. The performance schedule will allow for back-to-back viewings of the two sections on Saturdays and Sundays or consecutive viewings Tuesday through Friday evenings.

Reilly was nominated for a Tony Award for his work in True West and received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for playing Amos Hart in the film version of Chicago. His other Broadway credits include A Streetcar Named Desire and The Grapes of Wrath. A busy movie actor, he can currently be seen on the big screen in Talladega Nights and A Prairie Home Companion.

Woodbury is a Los Angeles-based playwright and performer who has specialized in solo performances. Tale of 2 Cities is her first ensemble play.