Don't Dress for Dinner Will Star Ben Daniels, Jennifer Tilly, Melora Hardin, Spencer Kayden, Adam James | Playbill

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News Don't Dress for Dinner Will Star Ben Daniels, Jennifer Tilly, Melora Hardin, Spencer Kayden, Adam James Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway production of Marc Camoletti's farce Don't Dress for Dinner, a sequel to Boeing-Boeing, will star Ben Daniels, Melora Hardin, Adam James, Oscar nominee Jennifer Tilly and Spencer Kayden.

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Adam James Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

The play, adapted by Robin Hawdon and directed by Tony Award nominee John Tillinger, will begin previews March 30 toward an April 26 opening night at the American Airlines Theatre. The Broadway premiere of this title, seen in Europe, London and in American regional theatres, is produced in association with Damian Arnold.

This will be a limited engagement through June 17. Casting was announced Feb. 2.

In the play, according to Roundabout, Bernard's plans for a romantic rendezvous with his mistress "are complete with a gourmet caterer and an alibi courtesy of his friend, Robert. But when Bernard's wife learns that Robert will be visiting for the weekend, she decides to stay in town for a surprise tryst of her own…setting the stage for a collision course of hidden identities and outrageous infidelities. The cook is Suzette, the lover is Suzanne, the friend is bewildered, the wife is suspicious, the husband is losing his mind and everyone is guaranteed a good time at this hilarious romp through the French countryside."

In the comedy, Tony nominee Ben Daniels (Roundabout's Les Liaisons Dangereuses) is Robert, Melora Hardin (Chicago, Jan Levinson on TV's "The Office") is Jacqueline, Adam James (a Lortel Award winner for MCC Theater's The Pride) is Bernard and Jennifer Tilly (Roundabout's The Women, Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway") is Suzanne, with Tony Award nominee Spencer Kayden (Little Sally in Urinetown) is Suzette.

An additional cast member will be announced. The design team includes John Lee Beatty (sets), William Ivey Long (costumes), Ken Billington (lights) and David Van Tieghem (sound).

Don't Dress For Dinner opened in Paris in 1987, under the original title Pajamas Pour Six, and ran for more than two years. Hawdon's adaptation of the original French play premiered in London at the Apollo Theatre in 1991 and ran for six years.

Melora Hardin
Tillinger's 2008-09 Chicago production of Don't Dress for Dinner, featuring Kayden, who won a Jeff Award for it, is the basis for this Broadway production.

Boeing-Boeing, a title that first surfaced in the 1960s (and was also a film), became a staple of American regional and dinner theatres in the decades that followed. It would become a London and Broadway smash in the 21st century when director Matthew Warchus got his hands on it (it won the Best Revival Tony Award in 2008).

Roundabout artistic director Todd Haimes said in earlier Roundabout production notes that the comedy will bring some lightness to a Roundabout season that has had success with shadowy themes and characters this year. "Farce is such a unique genre, and I really want to bring our audiences a strong dose of unabashed delight," he commented. "That was what I felt when I saw John's production of Don't Dress for Dinner in Chicago — there's nothing quite like spending a whole evening laughing. I thought John had a fresh take on the play, and it feels incredibly fun and contemporary for having been written nearly 30 years ago."

Director Tillinger's Broadway credits include Absurd Person Singular with Paxton Whitehead and Deborah Rush; Say Goodnight, Gracie with Frank Gorshin; Judgment at Nuremburg with Maximilian Schell, Martha Keller and George Grizzard; Night Must Fall with Matthew Broderick; The Sunshine Boys with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall; Inherit the Wind with Charles Durning and George C. Scott (Tony Award nomination, OCC Award); Arthur Miller's Broken Glass; The Price with Eli Wallach (Tony Award nomination); Sweet Sue with Mary Tyler Moore and Lynn Redgrave; Loot! with Joseph Maher (Tony Award nomination, OCC Award); Corpse! with Milo O'Shea. Off-Broadway, he directed Tea at Five; A Picasso; House and Garden; Comic Potential; A Perfect Ganesh; Lips Together Teeth Apart; It's Only a Play; Breaking Legs; The Lisbon Traviata (Lortel Award); Love Letters (Lortel Award); The Perfect Party (OCC Award); Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Drama Desk Award).

Tickets are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the American Airlines box office (227 West 42nd Street).

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The Road to Mecca is currently playing at the American Airlines.

 
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