Maggie Grace, Ellen Burstyn, Sebastian Stan and More Complete Cast of Broadway Picnic Revival
Roundabout Theatre Company has announced full casting for its upcoming revival of William Inge’s Picnic. Ellen Burstyn, Sebastian Stan, Maggie Grace, Elizabeth Marvel, Reed Birney and Mare Winningham will star in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play alongside Madeleine Martin, Ben Rappaport, Cassie Beck, Maddie Corman and Chris Perfetti.
Directed by Sam Gold, the show will begin previews on December 14 and open on January 13, 2013 at the American Airlines Theatre. The production will play a limited engagement through February 24.
First performed on Broadway in 1953, Picnic is a comedy about a group of women in the American Heartland whose Labor Day picnic is disturbed by a handsome young drifter named Hal Carter (Stan) who sends the women reeling—especially the beautiful Madge (Grace). Birney plays Howard Bevans, Marvel will play Rosemary Sydney, with Winningham taking on the role of Flo Owens and Burstyn playing Helen Potts. Martin will play Millie Owens, Rappaport will play Alan Seymour, Beck will play Christine Schoenwalde, Corman will play Irma Kronkite and Perfetti will play Bomber.
Picnic’s creative team includes set designer Andrew Lieberman, costumes designer David Zinn, lighting designer Jane Cox, sound designer Jill BC Du Boff and choreographer Chase Brock.
Tony Award winner Burstyn is a stage and screen veteran, having won an Emmy in 2009 for Law & Order: SVU and an Academy Award for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (she was also nominated five more times). Her numerous Broadway credits include 84 Charing Cross Road, Shirley Valentine, Sacrilege and Same Time, Next Year (for which she won her Tony).
Grace will be making her Broadway debut in Picnic. The actress is best known to audiences for her role as Shannon in the cult TV show Lost, as well as her film roles in Taken and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. Stan made his Broadway debut in 2007 in Talk Radio, and is one of TV’s most promising rising stars. His TV credits include USA’s Political Animals (opposite Burstyn) and ABC’s Once Upon A Time, with film credits including the Captain America franchise, Black Swan and Rachel Getting Married.
Marvel recently appeared in last year’s Tony-nominated drama Other Desert Counties, as well as productions of Top Girls and Seascape. Birney last appeared on Broadway in Gemini in 1977, and received a Drama Desk Special Award in 2011 for his extensive theatrical contributions. Academy Award nominee and two-time Emmy winner Winningham is a notable film and TV actress; she appeared off-Broadway in Tribes and will be making her Broadway debut in Picnic.
Martin originated the role of Jean Fordham in the original Broadway production of August: Osage County; she is currently appearing off-Broadway in Harper Regan. Beck appeared on Broadway in The Norman Conquests and in Playwrights Horizons productions of The Drunken City and A Prayer For My Enemy. Corman starred in Broadway’s Next Fall and off-Broadway in Love, Loss and What I Wore; she also has an extensive film and TV resume. Rappaport, best known as the star of NBC’s Outsourced, and Perfetti will both be making their Broadway debuts.
