Now in its fourth season, the Emmy Award-winning HBO series created by writer director Alan Ball ("American Beauty") stars Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy, Lauren Ambrose, Rachel Griffiths, Freddy Rodriguez and Mathew St. Patrick. Playwright Craig Wright (Recent Tragic Events) is credited with penning the season opener.
"Six Feet Under" centers on the Fisher family who own and operate a funeral parlor out of their own home. The family was thrown into discord as the father died in a car accident in the pilot episode. The two sons, the mother and daughter were suddenly faced with a business to run and family relationships that were estranged.
Returning guest stars include Kathy Bates, Patricia Clarkson, James Cromwell and Rainn Wilson will again make appearances on the upcoming season. Also slated to guest star are Mena Suvari ("American Beauty"), Ellen DeGeneres, Veronica Cartwright ("Just Married") and Michelle Trachtenberg ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer").
The series features Conroy as the burdened matriarch Ruth. Conroy has appeared on Broadway in such productions as The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Ring Around the Moon, The Little Foxes, Two Shakespearean Actors, as well as Our Town (Lincoln Center), In the Summer House, The Secret Rapture and The Rehearsal.
Series regular Hall, who stars as the homosexual son David, returned to Broadway in Chicago during his last hiatus. (The show's song "We Both Reached For The Gun" received an added laugh on the lyric "Where's your parents?/ Six feet under.") Hall has also starred in Broadway's other Kander and Ebb work Cabaret as the Emcee. Other credits include Skylight and Corpus Christi. Krause, who plays the elder Fisher brother Nate, will make his Broadway debut this summer in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of the Arthur Miller play, After The Fall. He will play the lead role of the soul-searching, forty-something lawyer — many believe to be a projection of Miller himself.
Clarkson returns as the free-spirited sister of the Fisher's mother — a role which has won her an Emmy Award. The recent star of The Kennedy Center's Streetcar Named Desire has appeared in a number of Richard Greenberg plays including Eastern Standard (Broadway), The Author's Voice, The Maderati and Vanishing Act. Other credits include John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves (Broadway) and the films "The Station Agent," "Pieces of April" and "Far From Heaven."
Bates, known best for her turn in "Misery," performed on Broadway in Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and 'night, Mother. Cromwell, who appeared in HBO's "Angels in America," has performed on Broadway in Hamlet and Othello. Theroux ("Mullholland Drive") and Wilson have also appeared on Broadway in Three Sisters and London Assurance, respectively.
"Six Feet Under" airs on HBO Sunday nights at 9-10PM (ET). Check your local listings. For more information on the show, visit the official website at www.hbo.com/sixfeetunder.
