Scott Ellis (Twelve Angry Men) directs the new work from playwright Beane (As Bees in Honey Drown) starring Johnny Galecki, Neal Huff, Zoe Lister-Jones and Julie White. Performances began Dec. 13, 2005, and the show opened Jan. 9 to positive critical response, extending the run four more weeks through Feb 26.
"We're in the process of exploring that," Ellis told Playbill.com about the possibility of a Broadway transfer. "The biggest challenge right now is there's no theatre this season. [The thought is] in case something closes, if we get a shot at it this season, we would go in. If not, the talk is that we do it in the fall."
If the move occurs, it would be the second consecutive season in which the Off-Broadway troupe has transferred a production to Broadway following last season's success with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
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The Little Dog Laughed satirizes the world of tabloid gossip, Hollywood and celebrities in a story that centers around a Hollywood agent, her very up-and-coming boy-toy client, a sexy young drifter and his girlfriend. "It's sort of the last taboo - which movie stars are gay? Because everyone sort of knows it, but no one talks about it," Beane explains about his latest work. "The last time I was in L.A. I mentioned this play to a movie producer. I said 'it's about a closeted movie star' and [the producer] literally gasped as if I said it was about a mass murderer. He said 'Oh no, oh no - don't say that - don't talk about that.'"
The cast of The Little Dog Laughed features Johnny Galecki ("Happy Endings," "The Opposite of Sex," "Roseanne"), Neal Huff (Take Me Out, The Foreigner), Zoe Lister-Jones (Codependence: A One Woman Show) and Julie White (Bad Dates, Fiction).
Beane has also penned the plays Music From a Sparkling Planet, The Country Club, Advice From a Caterpillar, White Lies and Devil May Care as well as the screenplay for "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar." A founding member and Artistic Director of the Drama Dept., he also recently wrote the book for the Off-Broadway musical The Big Time.
Ellis directed last season's Broadway staging of Twelve Angry Men. Other credits include That Championship Season (at Second Stage Theatre, the company’s first show in its current home), The Man Who Had All the Luck, The Rainmaker, 1776, She Loves Me, A Month in the Country and Steel Pier. He is also set to helm the upcoming Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Entertaining Mr. Sloane starring Alec Baldwin and the world premiere of John Kander and Fred Ebb's Curtains starring David Hyde Pierce in Los Angeles.
The design team for The Little Dog Laughed will feature Allen Moyer (set) Jeff Mahshie (costumes), Donald Holder (lighting) and Lewis Flinn (sound).
Tickets to The Little Dog Laughed at Second Stage, 307 West 43rd Street (just off Eighth Ave.), are available by calling (212) 246-4422 or (800) 766-6048 or online at www.SecondStageTheatre.com.
