By Kenneth Jones
28 Jul 2009

August: Osage County star Estelle Parsons.
photo by Joan Marcus

The national tour of Broadway's Tony Award-winning Best Play of 2008, August: Osage County, the sprawling and darkly comic drama by Tracy Letts, opens July 28 after previews from July 24 in Denver.

As previously announced, Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons, who played pill-poppin' Oklahoma mama Violet Weston in the Broadway run, leads the cast. The tour launches in Denver at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House (playing to Aug. 8) before moving on to San Francisco.

The production — all three acts and three-and-a-half hours of it — is directed by 2008 Tony Award-winner Anna D. Shapiro.

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Joining Parsons are Shannon Cochran as Barbara Fordham, Jon DeVries as Beverly Weston, Libby George as Mattie Fae Aiken, Stephen Key as Little Charles, Emily Kinney as Jean Fordham, Laurence Lau as Steve Heidebrecht, Marcus Nelson as Sheriff Deon Gilbeau (and understudying Bill and Steve), Paul V. O'Connor as Charlie Aiken, Jeff Still (late of Off-Broadway's acclaimed Our Town) as Bill Fordham, DeLanna Studi as Johnna Monevata, Angelica Torn as Ivy Weston, Amy Warren as Karen Weston, Avia Bushyhead (understudying Johnna and Jean), Stephen D'Ambrose (understudying Beverly and Charlie), Barbara Kingsley (understudying Violet and Mattie Fae), Bryn Magnus (understudying Little Charles and the Sheriff) and Kim Martin-Cotton (understudying Barbara, Karen and Ivy).

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August: Osage County also won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Letts' plays include Superior Donuts, Man From Nebraska, Killer Joe and Bug.

According to the producers, "this grand and gripping new play tells the story of the Westons, a large extended clan that comes together at their rural Oklahoma homestead after the alcoholic patriarch disappears. Forced to confront unspoken truths and astonishing secrets, the family must also contend with Violet, a pill-popping, deeply unsettled woman at the center of the storm."

Parsons played Violet in the Broadway production of August: Osage County from June 2008-May 2009. Critics raved.

The Broadway run ended June 28.

The show's creative team includes Tony Award winner Todd Rosenthal (sets), Ana Kuzmanic (costumes), Ann G. Wrightson (lights), Richard Woodbury (sound) and David Singer (original music).

August: Osage County is produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler and Jerry Frankel.

Visit AugustonBroadway.com.