Primary Stages' Chasing Manet Cancels One Performance

Primary Stages' current production of Chasing Manet has canceled its evening performance for April 22 due to the absence of cast member and Broadway alum Vanessa Aspillaga, who has been called away by a family emergency. As the show, written by Tina Howe and directed by Michael Wilson, has no understudies, Primary Stages alum and recent Shipwrecked! An Entertainment cast member Donetta Grey will assume Aspillaga's role when performances resume on April 23 at Primary's 59E59th Theater space. There are no details regarding the length of Aspillaga's absence at this time. Chasing Manet is scheduled to run through May 2.

The play is about a rebellious painter from a distinguished family in Boston and an ebullient Jewish woman with a huge, adoring family who form an unlikely bond. Inside the confining walls of Mount Airy Nursing Home, the two plot an escape to Paris aboard the QE2. But can they possibly pull it off amidst the chaos of their surroundings? The tension and comedy grow as they struggle to take wing for the last time.

In addition to Aspillaga, Chasing Manet features Tony Award winner Jane Alexander, Lynn Cohen, Jack Gilpin, Julie Halston, David Margulies and Robert Christopher Riley.