Off-Broadway's The Last Days of Judas Iscariot Gets Its Pontius Pilate and More

By Ernio Hernandez
13 Dec 2004

(From top:) Stephen McKinley Henderson and Kohl Sudduth
(From top:) Stephen McKinley Henderson and Kohl Sudduth

Dracula's Stephen McKinley Henderson and Take Me Out's Kohl Sudduth join the cast of the upcoming world premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days of Judas Iscariot set for Off-Broadway.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Our Lady of 121st Street) directs the LAByrinth Theatre Company staging presented in collaboration with The Public Theater. Previews begin at The Public Feb. 8, 2005.

Henderson (Drowning Crow, King Hedley II, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) — who will play Pontius Pilate — and Sudduth (of the Broadway and Off-Broadway cast of Take Me Out) will join the Last Days company that currently stars Sam Rockwell ("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind") in the title role and Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio) as the Devil.

The cast also includes Liza Colón-Zayas (Living Out), Jeffrey DeMunn (K2, "The Green Mile"), Yetta Gottesman (Where's My Money?), muMs ("Oz," "Everyday People"), Deborah Rush (The Sisters Rosensweig, Noises Off), Elizabeth Rodriguez (Robbers) and Yul Vazquez (The Stendhal Syndrome, "Seinfeld").

The Last Days follows the story, set mainly in a near-Purgatory courtroom, in which a lawyer appeals the case of God and the Kingdom of Heaven vs. Judas Iscariot.

A December 2003 Barn Series reading of the work included the such characters as the accused Judas (Rockwell), his mother (Colon-Zayas), his Irish lawyer (Elizabeth Canavan), childhood friend (muMs), opposing Middle Eastern counsel with a lisp (Vasquez), Court of Hope judge (Richard Petrocelli of Our Lady of 121st Street), a feistily persistent saint (Rodriguez), an angel (Portia), Pontius Pilate (Ron Cephas Jones of Our Lady), Jesus (Michael Pitt of "The Dreamers") and a laid back Devil (playwright John Patrick Shanley).

Longtime LAByrinth patriot Guirgis also penned Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train; In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings and Our Lady of 121st Street, all directed by Hoffman.

Hoffman is best known as a stage and film actor ("Boogie Nights" and True West among his popular portrayals). He was nominated for his recent turn on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Hoffman serves as co-artistic director of LAByrinth Theater Company with actor John Ortiz.

Tickets for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot go on sale Jan. 14, 2005. For more information on LAByrinth Theater Company, visit www.labtheater.org.