MCC Theatre continues their season 15th season with A Letter From Ethel Kennedy by Christopher Gorman. Joanna Gleason, Broadway's original Baker's Wife from Into the Woods, takes on directorial duties for the production set to run April 30-May 25.

A Letter From Ethel Kennedy centers on a man trying to reconcile with his parents over lunches at Joe Allen Restaurant in time to make his 2 o'clock curtain. The comedy is set to star Anita Gillette, Bradford Cover, Jay Goede, Randy Harrison and Bernie McInerney.

Harrison received his BFA in Theatre from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, where he had starring roles in Hello Again, Shopping and Fucking and Children of Eden. He also played at many regional stages before making his screen debut in Showtime's "Queer As Folk."

Gillette starred in the original runs of Gypsy, Carnival! and Cabaret on Broadway. Cover recently starred in the Broadway revival of A Thousand Clowns. Goede played in both Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika. McInerney has been seen on the Great White Way in That Championship Season and revivals of Summer and Smoke and The Rainmaker.

Gleason returns to the New York stage following her recent directorial work on Call Waiting at Los Angeles' Tiffany Theatre. She had also spent her offstage time on screen in the short-lived "Bette" and numerous guest appearances on "The West Wing," "Friends," "The Practice" and "ER." Gleason won the Tony Award for her portrayal in Into The Woods. Gorman, who spent many years as a television executive at CBS, died of AIDS in May 2001. He directed productions of St. Joan and Pray to Mary as well as the live audio version of his short stories — published in the anthology, "From a Burning House: The AIDS Project Los Angeles Writers Workshop Collection" — with a cast including Ron Rifkin, David Hyde Pierce and Richard Thomas.

A Letter From Ethel Kennedy was originally workshopped by Gleason at the Arcade Theatre in Nov. 1998 starring Gillette and Steven Weber. Gorman wrote the play in his time at the Writers Workshop at AIDS Project Los Angeles chronicling his struggle with the disease.

For tickets to A Letter From Ethel Kennedy at MCC, 120 West 28th Street (between Sixth and Seventh Ave.), call (212) 206-1515 or order online at www.smarttix.com. Visit the MCC website at www.mcctheater.com.

— by Ernio Hernandez