Representatives for Williamstown confirmed O'Hara's casting in the musical that has a score by Tony Award-nominated Grey Gardens songwriters Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics). Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out) authored the book to Far From Heaven, which is based on the 2002 film of the same title.
Julianne Moore originated the role of housewife Cathy Whitaker in the film. O'Hara has also been involved in readings of Korie and Frankel's Finding Neverland. She earned Tony Award nominations for The Light in the Piazza, The Pajama Game and South Pacific. This spring she will co-star with Matthew Broderick in Nice Work If You Can Get It on Broadway.
Far From Heaven will play the Williamstown Main Stage July 19-29 under the direction of Tony nominee Michael Greif (Grey Gardens, Rent, Next to Normal).
Following its Williamstown debut, Far From Heaven will arrive Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in spring 2013. Casting for that production has yet to be announced.
Here's how the musical is billed: "Cathy Whitaker seems to be the picture-perfect wife and mother in 1957 suburban Connecticut. But roiling beneath the surface, secret longings and forbidden desires cause her world to unravel – with incendiary consequences. With a lush score that is both jazz-inflected and hauntingly lyrical, Far From Heaven is a powerful story of romance, betrayal, intolerance and a woman grappling with her identity in a society on the verge of great upheaval."
