TV vet Tuc Watkins has signed on to play the title role in the forthcoming off-Broadway comedy White’s Lies, replacing previously announced star Scott Patterson, who bowed out for a role in a TV pilot. Ben Andron’s play, also starring Tony Award winner Betty Buckley, Peter Scolari, Christy Carlson Romano, Rena Strober and Jimmy Ray Bennett, will now begin previews on April 12 and open on May 6 at New World Stages, directed by Bob Cline.
White’s Lies centers on Joe White (Watkins), who’s handsome and charming, with a great career and plenty of girlfriends. His mother (Buckley) drops a bombshell: She’s got cancer, and her dying wish is to have a grandchild. With his bachelorhood threatened, Joe could find a nice girl to settle down and have kids with, or he could convince his bitter, angry ex-girlfriend from college—who just happens to have a daughter in her early twenties—to pretend that her daughter is his daughter. As their tangled web of lies unravels, Joe and company find themselves on a hilarious journey full of twists and turns.
Watkins plays Bob Hunter on TV’s Desperate Housewives and had two stints as the popular character David Vickers on ABC’s daytime soap One Life to Live. He appeared in the off-Broadway production of Fortune’s Fools and won a Dramalogue Award for the L.A. production of Boy’s Play
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