S. Epatha Merkerson to Star in MTC's Come Back Little Sheba

Law & Order star and Tony nominee S. Epatha Merkerson will star as Lola in the Manhattan Theatre Club's forthcoming Broadway production of William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba. The production will begin previews at the Biltmore Theatre on January 3, 2008, and open on January 24, directed by Michael Pressman.

Come Back, Little Sheba centers on Lola Merkerson a faded beauty queen trapped in a lonely marriage to Doc, a recovering alcoholic on the brink of relapse. When a pretty young woman becomes a boarder in their cluttered Midwest home, their lives are unsettled as unspoken passions rise to the surface. As the emptiness of their marriage is laid bare, can they find their way back to each other or will they be undone?

The play originally opened at the Booth Theatre on February 15, 1950, and ran for 190 performances in a production that won Tony Awards for its two stars, Shirley Booth and Sidney Blackmer. Inge was named the most promising playwright of the season and went on to write Picnic 1953, Bus Stop 1955 and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs 1957. Booth won an Oscar for the 1952 film version of Sheba co-starring Burt Lancaster. A 1984 off-Broadway revival produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company starred Shirley Knight and Philip Bosco. Additional casting and creative team members for MTC's Broadway production will be announced at a later date.

Merkerson, currently in her 13th season on Law & Order as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren, starred in a recent production of Come Back, Little Sheba at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles under Pressman's direction. She received a Tony nomination for August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and won 2006 Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and NAACP Image Awards for her starring role in the HBO film Lackawanna Blues. Her most recent New York stage credit was an Obie Award-winning performance in Birdie Blue at Second Stage. Other notable stage credits include F**king A, I'm Not Stupid and The Old Settler.