Previews began May 6. Arcelus plays defense attorney Jake Brigance in the race-related, Southern-set courtroom drama. Broadway's Erin Davie (Grey Gardens, A Little Night Music) plays his wife, Carla; Dion Graham (Marcus Gardley's On the Levee at Lincoln Center) plays defendant Carl Lee Hailey.
The Ethan McSweeny-directed production runs to June 19 in Arena's Kreeger Theatre in the Mead Center for American Theater.
Here is the cast and special guests on opening night:
Produced by special arrangement with commercial producer Daryl Roth, the fiery drama is said to be Broadway-bound. Holmes won the Tony Award for his book and score of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. McSweeny directed the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man. A Time to Kill "depicts a Mississippi town’s upheaval when Carl Lee Hailey takes the law into his own hands following an unspeakable crime committed against his daughter," according to Arena. "Now on trial for murder, Carl Lee's only hope lies with one young, idealistic lawyer Jake Brigance, who is outmatched by the formidable district attorney, Rufus Buckley, and under attack from both sides of a racially divided city."
The cast of A Time to Kill also features the respected character actor Evan Thompson (Broadway's 1776, City of Angels and An American Daughter) as Judge Omar Noose; Rosie Benton (Broadway's Accent on Youth) as young law clerk Ellen; Brennan Brown (The Persians and Pinter's The Celebration Off-Broadway) as the D.A.; plus Jeffrey M. Bender, Trena Bolden Fields, Jonathan Lincoln Fried, Deborah Hazlett, Joe Isenberg, Chike Johnson, Michael Marcan, Hugh Nees and John C. Vennema.
For tickets and information, visit www.arenastage.org.
