Rapp will succeed Ain Gordon in the role of "Journals." The cast also currently features Lisa Kron (stepping in for a vacationing Kathleen Chalfant), Hazelle Goodman and Frank Wood as well as a rotating special guest actor.
The current guest actor is WLTW radio personality Valerie Smaldone. Upcoming guests include Dylan Walsh (May 15-22) and David Boreanaz (May 23-27).
Anthony Rapp created the role of Mark Cohen in the Broadway and London productions of Rent. His other theatrical credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch; You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Precious Sons; Six Degrees of Separation; Bright Lights, Big City; Raised in Captivity; Trafficking in Broken Hearts; Youth Is Wasted; Sophistry; and The Destiny of Me. Rapp's film credits feature roles in "A Beautiful Mind," "Adventures in Babysitting," "School Ties," "Dazed and Confused" and "Six Degrees of Separation." He was also seen in Chris Columbus' "Rent" film.
Stories to Tell was co-created by Gray's widow, Kathleen Russo, and Lucy Sexton, who also directs. The show, according to press notes, "unfolds chronologically, from recollections of childhood swimming trips with his mother (who also committed suicide) and tales of awkward adolescent sexual encounters, to the joy Gray took in being a father himself." The production includes diary extracts as well as excerpts from Sex and Death to Age 14; Terrors of Pleasure; Swimming to Cambodia; Impossible Vacation; Gray's Anatomy; Monster in a Box; It's a Slippery Slope; Morning, Noon and Night; and Life Interrupted.
Previously titled Leftover Stories to Tell, the work played UCLA's Freud Playhouse in June 2006 with a cast headed by Teri Garr, John C. Reilly, Tony Shalhoub and Frances Conroy. The Naked Angels Production is being presented by Eric Falkenstein and Michael Alden. The production, which was originally scheduled to close May 13, is now playing through June 10.
Spalding Gray won an Obie Award for Swimming to Cambodia and filmed the monologue with director Jonathan Demme. Other works include Morning, Noon and Night; Monster in a Box; Gray's Anatomy; and It's a Slippery Slope. He performed on Broadway in Our Town and Gore Vidal's The Best Man. After a series of bouts with depression, Gray took his own life in 2004 by jumping from the Staten Island Ferry into the waters of New York Harbor.
Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell plays Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 7 PM with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 3 PM. The Minetta Lane Theatre is located in Manhattan at 18 Minetta Lane, just off Sixth Avenue.
Tickets, priced $35-$65, are available by calling (212) 307-7171 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets are also available by visiting or calling the Minetta Lane box office at (212) 420-8000.
