On the Air: Broadway Cast Complete for Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio

By Ernio Hernandez
02 Jan 2007

Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Full casting has been announced for the upcoming Robert Falls Broadway staging of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, which will star Glengarry Glen Ross Tony Award winner Liev Schreiber.

Previews begin Feb. 9 towards a Feb. 25 opening at the Longacre Theatre. Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and JAM Theatricals produce.

Adam Sietz and Cornell Womack were recently added to a cast that includes the previously announced Peter Hermann, Stephanie March, Erik Jensen, Sebastian Stan, Christine Pedi and Barbara Rosenblatt.

Talk Radio follows an acid-tongued, late-night talk-show host whose program is about to be picked up for national syndication. The work first played in New York in 1987 at Off-Broadway's Public Theater with Bogosian starring opposite a cast that included Linda Atkinson, John C. McGinley and Mark Metcalf. It was adapted by Bogosian and director Oliver Stone for the 1988 film.

Schreiber appeared in Macbeth for The Public Theater's "Shakespeare in the Park" last summer, following up his Henry V turn in 2003. Other credits include Harold Pinter's Betrayal; Neil LaBute's The Mercy Seat; and Othello. A co-star in the"Lackawanna Blues" HBO film, he also appeared on film in the "Scream" trilogy, "The Manchurian Candidate" remake and on television in "RKO 281" and "Spinning Boris." He made his directorial debut last year with "Everything Is Illuminated" — which he also adapted. The actor will be seen next on the CBS series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Filling out the characters who live in the world of talk-show host character Barry Champlain (Schreiber) are Hermann ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "United 93") as producer Dan Woodruff, March ("30 Rock" and "SVU") as producer/love interest Linda MacArthur and Jensen (The Exonerated) as Stu Noonan. Stan ("The Covenant") along with Pedi (Little Me, Forbidden Broadway), Rosenblatt (The Secret Garden), Sietz (Barefoot in the Park) and Womack (On Golden Pond) play a number of characters who call in to the radio show (not to be seen on stage until the curtain call).

The design team for Talk Radio will include Mark Wendland (set), Christopher Akerlind (lights), Laura Bauer (costumes) and Richard Woodbury (sound).

Another well-known Bogosian work, subUrbia, was recently staged at Off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre by his wife Jo Bonney. As a performer, Bogosian was last seen as The Devil in Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. He also appeared in his one-man works Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead; Drinking in America; and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. The scribe can also be seen in the films "Wonderland," Heights," "Igby Goes Down" and "Deconstructing Harry."

Tickets to Talk Radio at the Longacre Theater 220 West 48th St., will be available by calling (212) 239-6200. For more information, visit the official website at talkradioonbroadway.com.