MTC Run of Lonergan's On-Again/Off-Again Starry Messenger Canceled

Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger has hit the latest bump in its on-again/off-again road to the stage. Set to star Tony winner Matthew Broderick, the play has been pulled from Manhattan Theatre Club's off-Broadway season at City Center due to scheduling conflicts. The Starry Messenger was announced to start performances in February 2008.

The Starry Messenger, which Lonergan will also direct, was originally announced in to play at the Old Globe Theatre prior to Broadway in 2007, which would have marked the playwright's Broadway debut. Those plans were scrapped in late 2006, before MTC announced plans to premiere the show.

In The Starry Messenger, Mark Broderick works at the Hayden Planetarium, teaching Upper West Siders about the mysteries of the galaxy. But when this forty-something married man meets a pretty young single mother, his own solar system begins spinning out of control, forcing him to come to terms with the inertia that is his life. Is it too late to try and re-connect with his wife and son? And how did his middling career get so badly off track?

MTC will announce a replacement production shortly.