Emmy winner Sarah Jessica Parker and Tony winner Blythe Danner are officially set to star in Manhattan Theatre Club’s off-Broadway production of Amanda Peet's The Commons of Pensacola. As previously reported, Parker and Danner had been in talks to re-team in the world premiere play, which will begin previews at the New York City Center — Stage I on October 22, and open on November 21. MTC artistic director Lynne Meadow is set to direct the production. Additional casting and creative team members for The Commons of Pensacola will be announced soon.
Marking Peet's professional playwrighting debut, The Commons of Pensacola centers on Judith (Danner), a woman who has been divested of her assets and forced to leave her luxurious New York life after her husband’s Wall Street scam became headline news. When her daughter Becca (Parker) and Becca’s filmmaker boyfriend pay Judith a visit to the one bedroom condo Judith now occupies in Pensacola, Florida, everyone’s motives are called into question. How will past and present circumstances inform how this family moves into the future?
Parker and Danner co-starred in MTC's 1995 off-Broadway production of A. R. Gurney’s Sylvia, in which Parker played a dog. Her most recent NYC stage appearance was in David Lindsay-Abaire's 2001 comedy Wonder of the World, also at MTC. Broadway credits include Once Upon a Mattress, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Annie and The Innocents. Parker is most famous for her role as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City.
Danner earned a Tony Award for Butterflies are Free, and three additional nominations for A Streetcar Named Desire, Follies and Betrayal. Her other Broadway credits include Blithe Spirit, The Deep Blue Sea, The Philadelphia Story, Twelfth Night, The Miser, Lovers and Cyrano de Bergerac. She can currently be seen as Broderick's eccentric mother in Nice Work If You Can Get It.
Peet made her Broadway debut in the 2006 revival of Barefoot in the Park. Her many film credits include Something's Gotta Give, A Lot Like Love, The Whole Nine Yards and Please Give.