By Andrew Gans
and Ernio Hernandez
26 Jun 2008

Anthony Rapp
photo by Aubrey Reuben

The Off-Broadway revival of Richard Nelson's Some Americans Abroad begins previews June 26 at the Second Stage Theatre.

Gordon Edelstein directs the comedy, which will officially open July 15 and play a limited engagement through Aug. 3.

The cast features Emily Bergl ( A Touch of the Poet, "Men in Trees"), Tom Cavanagh ( Urinetown, "Ed"), John Cunningham ( Six Degrees of Separation, 1776), Fiona Dourif ("Deadwood," "Thief"), Halley Feiffer ( subUrbia, "Margot at the Wedding"), Enid Graham (The Constant Wife, Dinner at Eight), Cristin Milioti (Coram Boy, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Pamela Payton-Wright ( The Show-Off, The Crucible), Anthony Rapp (Rent; You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown), Corey Stoll (Old Acquaintance, Intimate Apparel) and Todd Weeks (The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Summer and Smoke).

In Some Americans Abroad, press notes state, "a group of partying American college students and their idealistic professors embark on a literary tour of England. With a crammed itinerary and barely enough time to digest the sites, the students' behavior devolves from appreciative to appalling while the professors confront the emptiness beyond their idealism in this comedy about what it means to make choices and stick with them."

The design team includes Michael Yeargan (scenic), Jennifer von Mayrhauser (costume), Donald Holder (lighting) and John Gromada (original music/sound).

Nelson's plays include Two Shakespearean Actors, New England, Goodnight Children Everywhere, Madame Melville, Frank's Home, Franny's Way, The General from America, Life Sentences and Jungle Coup. He also penned the books for the musicals My Life with Albertine and Broadway's Chess and James Joyce's The Dead — earning a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for the latter.

Edelstein, the artistic director of the Long Wharf Theatre, recently directed the 1991 revival of The Homecoming. Other credits include Mourning Becomes Electra, the American premiere of Martin McDonagh's A Skull in Connemara and The Day the Bronx Died, among others.

Tickets to Some Americans Abroad at Second Stage Theatre, 307 West 43rd Street (off 8th Avenue), are available by calling (212) 246-4422 or (800) 766-6048 or online at 2ST.com.