Adriane Lenox to Star in World Premiere of Nottage's Ruined in Chicago and NYC

By Kenneth Jones
June 26, 2008

Tony Award winner Adriane Lenox of Doubt will star in Manhattan Theatre Club's 2009 world premiere production of Lynn Nottage's Ruined, a co-production with the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

The drama will play New York City Center Stage I beginning Jan. 21, 2009, toward a Feb. 10 opening. Prior to coming to MTC, Lenox will appear in the Goodman run of Ruined, which will open in Chicago on Nov. 17, 2008, in the Goodman's Owen Theatre.

In Ruined, Lenox will play the role of Mama Nadi, a businesswoman living in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lenox previously appeared in the MTC world premiere production of the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning Doubt which subsequently transferred to Broadway. Lenox won the Tony as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Doubt.

Nottage is the Obie Award-winning author of such plays as Fabulation and Intimate Apparel. Her new play, according to MTC, is a "haunting, probing work about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war. Set in a small mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo, this powerful play follows Mama Nadi (Lenox), a shrewd businesswoman in a land torn apart by civil war. But is she protecting or profiting by the women she shelters? How far will she go to survive? Can a price be placed on a human life?"

Kate Whoriskey, who staged Nottage's Fabulation, directs.

Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Lenox has been seen on Broadway in Ain't Misbehavin', Dreamgirls, Kiss Me Kate, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Caroline, or Change and Chicago.

For more information, visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.