Red, a Hot Seller at Arena Stage, Opens in DC Jan. 26

By Kenneth Jones
26 Jan 2012

Edward Gero
Edward Gero
Photo by Liz Lauren

Arena Stage's Washington, DC, engagement of John Logan's Red, produced in association with Chicago's Goodman Theatre, where this production bowed last fall, opens Jan. 26 following sold-out previews since Jan. 20. It has been extended by one week, now to March 11.

The Robert Falls-directed staging features four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Edward Gero as painter Mark Rothko and Patrick Andrews as his assistant, at the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. It was originally to close March 4.

The fictionalized character study about the abstract expressionist artist won the 2010 Tony Award as Best Play. Read Playbill's recent interview with playwright Logan, who is also the newly Oscar-nominated screenwriter of "Hugo."

According to Arena and Goodman, "Full-blooded and visceral, the Tony Award-winning Red is a journey into the mind of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, for whom paintings are 'pulsating' life forces and art is intended to stop the heart. Red chronicles the tormented painter's two-year struggle to complete a lucrative set of murals for Manhattan's exclusive Four Seasons restaurant, and his fraught relationship with a seemingly naïve young assistant — who must choose between appeasing his mentor and changing the course of art history. Set amid the swiftly-changing cultural tide of the early 1960s, Red is a startling snapshot of a brilliant artist at the height of his fame."

Gero (Mark Rothko) appeared in King Lear at the Goodman. He is a four-time Helen Hayes Award recipient and a 14-time Helen Hayes nominee. His regional credits include a recently completed run at Round House Theatre as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, where he also played Richard Nixon in Nixon's Nixon in 1999 and 2008 and received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor both times. Additional regional credits include the title character in Signature Theatre's 2010 production of Sweeney Todd; David Malter in The Chosen for Theater J at Arena Stage; Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre; Donny in American Buffalo at The Studio Theatre and Horace Vandergelder in The Matchmaker at Centerstage in Baltimore.

Andrews (Ken) last appeared at the Goodman in The Actor. His recent Chicago credits include American Buffalo at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Do the Hustle at Writers' Theatre; Cabaret at Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook; The Homosexuals and Stupid Kids at About Face Theatre; The People's Temple and Speech & Debate at American Theater Company.

The creative team of Red includes Todd Rosenthal (set), Birgit Rattenborg Wise (costumes), Keith Parham (lights), Richard Woodbury (sound).

Visit arenastage.org.