Casting is complete for the upcoming Broadway premiere of Lucas Hnath's Hillary and Clinton. Peter Francis James will portray Barack Obama alongside Zak Orth as Mark Penn, joining the previously announced Laurie Metcalf as Hillary Clinton and John Lithgow as Bill Clinton. Joe Mantello will direct the production, slated to begin previews on March 16, 2019 ahead of an official opening night of April 18 at the Golden Theatre.
James was most recently seen on Broadway in the 2017 Tony-nominated revival of Present Laughter. His other main-stem credits include The Merchant of Venice, On Golden Pond, Drowning Crow, Judgment at Nuremberg and The American Clock.
Orth has been seen on Broadway in Major Barbara and off-Broadway in Knickerbocker, The Internationalist, Rope, A Place at the Table, The Eros Trilogy, Misalliance and Suburbia.
Hillary and Clinton takes place behind closed doors in the state of New Hampshire during the early days of 2008, where a former First Lady named Hillary (Metcalf) is in a desperate bid to save her troubled campaign for President of the United States. Her husband, Bill (Lithgow), sees things one way; her campaign manager, Mark (Orth), sees things another.
The creative team for Hillary and Clinton will include Chloe Lamford (set design), Tony and Oscar winner Ann Roth (costume design) and Tony winner Hugh Vanstone (lighting design).