The reconstituted production (with some newcomers to the cast) will play to March 6. Samantha Mathis, Don Amendolia, Susan Kellermann, Greg Keller, Grant James Varjas, Scott Barrow and Caitlin O'Connell join Fonda and Grenier in the Tectonic Theater Project production. Mathis, Amendolia and Kellermann appeared in the Broadway run.
Fonda, a two-time Academy Award winner (for "Klute" and "Coming Home"), was nominated for the Tony Award for her role in the drama, about an ill musicologist seeking to discover the reason why composer Ludwig von Beethoven was passionate about a simple waltz. The Broadway staging was nominated for a total of five Tony Awards, including a nomination for Grenier as Beethoven.
According to CTG, "In 33 Variations, the audience is transported back and forth from present-day New York to 19th-century Austria, when a musicologist (Fonda) is determined to solve the musical mystery of why Beethoven (Grenier) spent his last years feverishly writing 33 variations of what appeared to be a mediocre waltz. Diagnosed with a serious disease, the scholar dismisses her daughter's (Mathis, who also appeared in the Broadway production) concerns and flies to Europe to study Beethoven's original papers. It is here that a heartfelt and moving story unfolds of how two remarkable individuals separated by 200 years defy mortality for a short, precious time and revel in their respective passions."
Artistic director of Tectonic Theatre Project, Kaufman received Tony Award nominations for 33 Variations (Best Play 2009) and for I Am My Own Wife (Best Director 2004), and recently directed the acclaimed Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo at the Mark Taper Forum and earlier at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. He also directed his play Gross Indecency at the Taper in 1998. Bengal Tiger will open on Broadway in spring 2011.
33 Variations is the second production of the 2011 Mark Taper Forum subscription season, though the play will be presented at the Ahmanson Theatre. Tickets, which are priced from $20-$80, are available by calling Center Theatre Group Audience Services at (213) 972-4400, in person at the Center Theatre Group box office or online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.
