Robert Foxworth, late of TV's "Falcon Crest," will headline the national tour of the smash Tony Award-winning drama, Proof, beginning Nov. 27 after a regional sitdown at Seattle Repertory Theatre Oct. 8-Nov. 10.
Foxworth will play Robert, the mentally-strained math genius whose troubles impact his sensitive daughter, Catherine, to be played by newcomer Chelsea Altman. The tour begins Nov. 27 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. It plays throughout the country to spring. Daniel Sullivan recreates his Tony Award winning direction for Seattle and the subsequent tour.
The play by David Auburn is at turns a comedy, a mystery, a family drama and a romance, and audiences have cheered the Broadway production for its craft and intelligence. Auburn won the 2001 Tony and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Proof.
The four-actor cast also includes Stephen Kunken as Hal, a math student of Robert's at the University of Chicago and a would-be suitor to Catherine, and Tasha Lawrence as Catherine's brittle New York sister, Claire. Kunken, the Broadway standby for the role of Hal, played the part opposite Mary-Louise Parker earlier this summer.
Foxworth is a TV, film and stage actor perhaps best known for his work as wine maker Chase Gioberti in the long-running prime-time drama, "Falcon Crest." He was seen on Broadway recently in Judgment at Nuremberg. Previous Broadway credits include Honour opposite Jane Alexander, and Ivanov at Lincoln Center. Newcomer Altman has landed one of the American theatre's recent plum roles for young women. Audiences aren't sure throughout the play if Catherine has inherited her father's genius — and illness. Altman most recently appeared on Broadway in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and A View from the Bridge. Her other stage credits include Collected Stories at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Monogamist at Playwrights Horizons and Taking Steps at The Alley Theatre.
Kunken's Off-Broadway credits include Arthur Laurents' Home of the Brave, Tony Kushner's The Dybbuk, Misalliance and Henry VIII. Lawrence's theatre credits include Wilder, Wilder, Wilder on Broadway, and Benjamin Constant, The Director and Loose Ends.
Proof continues its hit Broadway run at the Walter Kerr. Mary-Louise Parker exits the show Sept. 9, as do Ben Shenkman and Johanna Day, and Jennifer Jason Leigh steps into the role of Catherine Sept. 11.
The play opened May 23, 2000 to wide critical acclaim, and played a sold-out, extended run Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage I. It opened on Broadway Oct. 24, 2000.
Designers for the Broadway and tour stagings are John Lee Beatty (set), Jess Goldstein (costumes), Pat Collins (lighting) and original music and sound design by John Gromada.
The tour will visit San Francisco's Curran Theatre, Sacramento's Community Theatre, Houston's Wortham Center, Boston's Wilbur Theatre, Philadelphia's Merriam Theatre, Baltimore's Morris Mechanic Theatre, Dallas' Majestic Theatre, Minneapolis' State Theatre, Chicago's Shubert Theatre, Palm Beach's Royal Poinciana Playhouse, Detroit's Fisher Theatre, Pittsburgh's Byham Theatre and Los Angeles' Wilshire Theatre.
