As previously reported, Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell (Well) will recreate her Jeff Award-winning performance, which she first conjured for Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2005.
Steppenwolf veteran Anna D. Shapiro also returns as director. Her New York City cast includes Tony nominee Reg Rogers, Mia Barron, Aya Cash, Peter Jay Fernandez, Obie Award winner Christopher Evan Welch and Ada-Marie L. Gutierrez and Nora Markus (who alternate in a child role).
Opening is Sept. 26 at the Mainstage Theater of Playwrights Horizons on West 42nd Street.
The original production of The Pain and the Itch was awarded the 2005 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work.
"With a young daughter in serious need of attention and a ravenous creature possibly prowling the upstairs bedrooms, what begins as an average Thanksgiving for one privileged family unravels into an exposé of disastrous choices and less-than-altruistic motives," according to Playwrights Horizons. "The Pain and the Itch is a scathing satire of the politics of class and race, a controversial, painfully human examination of denial and its consequences." Norris is a fixture of Chicago's theatre community. He has an ongoing collaboration with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where many of his works have been commissioned and produced, including The Infidel, Purple Heart, We All Went Down to Amsterdam, The Unmentionables (currently running) and The Pain and the Itch. He is also an actor with extensive credits, having worked on Broadway (An American Daughter, Wrong Mountain, Biloxi Blues), Off-Broadway (Plunge at Playwrights Horizons, What the Butler Saw), and on film and television ("The Sixth Sense," "Law & Order"). This production will mark his New York debut as a playwright.
Performances for the limited engagement will continue through Oct. 8.
The creative team includes scenic designer Dan Ostling (who designed the original production at Steppenwolf), costume designer Jennifer von Mayrhauser, lighting designer Donald Holder and sound designer by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen (who also designed the Steppenwolf production). Production stage manager will be Susie Cordon.
The performance schedule will be Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM, Saturdays at 2:30 & 8 PM and Sundays at 2:30 & 7:30 PM. Tickets are $65. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Aug. 2.
Pay What You Can Night for the production will be the first preview Sept. 1 at 8 PM.
For more information, visit www.playwrightshorizons.org.
