Original director Jimmy Bohr stages the invite-only event to take place 7 PM at the Lucille Lortel Theatre — where the Off-Broadway troupe is currently in residence.

"MCC gave me the most important theatrical experience of my life," said Tomei of her role in the drama. "Every artistic value that guides me came from that experience."

Tomei and her original co-star Terry Rabine are joined by Shawn Hatosy in the work which was the inaugural play for the company. The reading ends the "Theater for Thought" series which included revivals of two other landmark MCC productions: Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit and Russell Lees' Nixon's Nixon.

In Alan Bowne's Beirut, "set in the 'near future,' a young man named Torch (Hatosy) has been quarantined to a dark, squalid room on the Lower East Side of New York City, after testing positive for a nameless, sexually transmitted disease." While he is locked away in his "Beirut," his uninfected girlfriend, Blue (Tomei) journeys across the quarantine line to be with him.

Tomei, known for her Oscar-winning turn in "My Cousin Vinny," appeared most recently on Broadway in Salome: The Reading. The Naked Angels Theater Company member has also frequented the stage in Tony Kushner's Slavs! (NYTW), Waiting For Lefty(CSC), What the Butler Saw (MTC), Demonology (Playwrights Horizons) and Broadway's Wait Until Dark. Her film work includes "In the Bedroom," "Chaplin," "Slums of Beverly Hills," "Unhook the Stars," "Only You," "Anger Management" and "The Perez Family." Hatosy (Roulette, "Six Feet Under") replaces the late actor Michael David Morrison, who originated the role of Torch. He died February 18, 1993.

  The April 17 staged reading of Beirut runs 59 minutes and is by invitation only (closed to the general public).

The company will conclude its 20th anniversary mainstage season with the American premiere of Neil Labute's Some Girl(s) (May 17-June 24).

For more information on MCC, visit www.mcctheater.com.