By Kenneth Jones
28 Sep 2009

Julianne Nicholson
photo by Aubrey Reuben

Julianne Nicholson, of TV's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," will star in the Off-Broadway world premiere of This by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson. The Playwrights Horizons staging will also feature Darren Pettie, and the previously announced Eisa Davis, Glenn Fitzgerald and Louis Cancelmi.

Directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin ([sic], eight seasons as artistic director of Soho Rep), the production will begin previews Nov. 6 in advance of an opening night Dec. 2 at PH's Mainstage Theater at 416 W. 42nd Street. The limited engagement is currently scheduled through Dec. 13.

Nicholson will play the lead role of Jane; she replaces Parker Posey, who withdrew due to a health issue.

In This, according to Playwrights, Jane (Julianne Nicholson) is not okay. She's a promising poet without a muse, a single mother without lessons to pass along. Her dating life's a shambles, and her helpful friends are only helping make things more complicated. This bright, witty, un-romantic comedy captures the uncertain steps of a circle of friends backing their way into middle age."

The production will feature scenic design by Louisa Thompson, costume design by Maiko Matsushima, lighting design by Matt Frey, sound design by Matt Tierney and original music by Peter Eldridge. Production stage manager is Kasey Ostopchuck.

Nicholson is well-known to TV audiences as Detective Megan Wheeler on the NBC/USA Network series "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," which she joined in 2006. She returns to the New York stage for the first time since appearing in Craig Lucas' Stranger at The Vineyard. Her many other film roles include "Seeing Other People" (Best Actress, 2004 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival), "Tully" (Independent Spirit Award nomination, Best Supporting Actress), "Kinsey," "The Love Letter," "One True Thing," the recent "Staten Island" and the just-wrapped "In Praise of Shadows." She was a series regular on "Ally McBeal."

Fitzgerald and Nicholson appear together in the new film "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men."

Pettie appeared at Playwrights Horizons in Spatter Pattern and on Broadway in Butley. Davis starred in Passing Strange and appeared in her own play Angela's Mix Tape Off-Broadway. Fitzgerald is Lortel nominee for Lobby Hero at Playwrights Horizons and plays Brian Darling on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money." Cancelmi appeared in Off-Broadway's The Singing Forest and Blasted.

Melissa James Gibson's plays include [sic] (Obie Award for playwriting, Kesselring Prize, "The Best Plays of 2001-02"); Suitcase or, those that resemble flies from a distance (NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, Rockefeller Foundation's Multi-Arts Production Fund); Brooklyn Bridge, with a song by Barbara Brousal (AT&T Onstage award); All Is Not (New York State Council on the Arts Theatre Artist Commission); and Current Nobody, a loose adaptation of Homer's Odyssey (2005 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; 2006 Sundance Theatre Lab). Gibson's work has been produced at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Soho Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, and The Children’s Theatre Company, as well as many other theatres, regionally and internationally. Currently, Gibson is working on commissions for Center Theatre Group and the Atlantic Theater Company. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Gibson has been a Jerome and MacDowell Colony Fellow and a recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse and The Children's Theatre Company/New Dramatists Playground program. [sic] and Suitcase are available through Dramatists Play Service.

The performance schedule for This will be Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM, Saturdays at 2:30 & 8 PM and Sundays at 2:30 & 7:30 PM. There will be additional performances Nov. 23 at 8 PM; a Wednesday matinee Nov. 25 at 2:30 PM; and Nov. 30 at 8 PM.

Tickets are $65 and will go on sale to the general public starting Oct. 7.

Tickets may be purchased online via TicketCentral.com, by phone at (212) 279-4200 (noon-8 PM daily), or in person at the Ticket Central box office, 416 West 42nd Street (between Ninth & Tenth Avenues).

For more information, visit www.playwrightshorizons.org.