Matthew Broderick to Star in Lonergan's The Starry Messenger at New Group
Two-time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick, currently headlining the Broadway revival of Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist, will star in the New Group’s upcoming off-Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger, accwhich had previously been slated to appear at Manhattan Theater Club in 2008 but was scrapped due to scheduling conflicts. The production will appear as part of New Group’s 2009-2010 season with previews starting in October at the Acorn Theatre on Theater Row. No director has been set.
Lonergan's plays include This Is Our Youth, Lobby Hero and The Waverly Gallery. He received an Academy Award nomination in 2000 for his screenplay for You Can Count on Me. This is Our Youth was recently revived with original cast members Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton and Missy Yager for a limited engagement by L.A Theatre Works. Lonergan and Broderick have been friends since childhood, when they were classmates at the Walden School in Manhattan.
According to previous show notes, The Starry Messenger follows Mark Broderick, who teaches about the mysteries of the galaxy at the Hayden Planetarium. When the married forty-something 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.”
A Tony winner for Brighton Beach Memoirs and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Broderick has appeared on Broadway in The Odd Couple, The Producers, Taller Than a Dwarf, Night Must Fall and Biloxi Blues.
The New Group’s 2009-2010 season will also include an Ethan Hawke-helmed revival of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind in January 2010, followed by a new musical adapted from Dan Savage’s The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant. Featuring music by Andy Monroe, lyrics by Jack Lechner and book by Michael Zam, The Kid will premiere in Spring 2010, directed by New Group artistic director Scott Elliott.
The company is currently presenting Ian Bruce’s Groundswell, featuring Larry Bryggman, David Lansbury and Soulemane Sy Savane at the Acorn Theatre. For more details on the social thriller, click here.
