Krysten Ritter Will Star in NBC Adaptation of Leslye Headland's Assistance; Seth Numrich in Talks for AMC Pilot

By Michael Gioia
19 Feb 2013

Michael Esper in the Off-Broadway production of Assistance
Michael Esper in the Off-Broadway production of Assistance
Photo by Joan Marcus

Krysten Ritter, who recently appeared in the ABC series "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," will star in the NBC single-camera comedy based on Leslye Headland's Assistance, according to Deadline.com. 

As previously reported, the NBC project will also be written by Headland and will be produced by Universal TV. Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, Owen Burke, Adam McKay and Ritter are executive producers.

Ritter, who has also signed a first-look deal with Universal TV, will play Nora in "Assistance," which was given its New York City premiere in 2012 at Playwrights Horizons.

Assistance, the darkly comic work about ambition and celebrity and the allure of power, began performances Feb. 3, 2012, at PH's Mainstage Theater and played through March. The production featured Bobby Steggert, Michael Esper, Sue Jean Kim, Virginia Kull, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe and Amy Rosoff.

Here's how the work was described: "For these young assistants, life is an endless series of humiliations at the hands of their hellacious boss, a powerful uber-magnate. In rare moments of calm when the phone calls stop rolling, Nick and Nora and their traumatized co-workers question whether all their work will lead to success — or just more work. [It's] a biting, high-octane satire about our attraction to power and what we're willing to sacrifice to stay in its orbit."

Read Playbill.com's earlier coverage on Assistance.

In other television news, Seth Numrich, who recently starred in Broadway's critically acclaimed revival of Golden Boy, is in negotiations for AMC's period drama pilot "Turn," written by Craig Silverstein and directed by Rupert Wyatt. He will join British actor Burn Gorman ("The Dark Knight Rises") in the project, which is based on Alexander Rose's book "Washington's Spies."

Numrich, who also starred in Broadway's War Horse, will play Benjamin Talmadge, an outspoken, impassioned young man who is running reconnaissance missions for General Washington.