Additional Casting Announced for Westport's They Knew What They Wanted Reading

By Adam Hetrick
November 4, 2008

Brian Hutchison and Andrea Maulella will join Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley for the Westport Country Playhouse reading of They Knew What They Wanted on Nov. 10.

Playhouse artistic director Joanne Woodward directs the reading of Sidney Howard's Napa Valley-set work that is presented as part of Westport's "Classical Series." Show time is 7 PM.

In addition to Hutchison (Westport's Of Mice and Men), Maulella (Westport's Tryst) and Hensley (Young Frankenstein), the cast will also feature Ross Bickell (Noises Off), Keir Dullea ("The Good Shepherd") and Bill Phillips (Outside the Window).

They Knew What They Wanted, according to press notes, "is the romantic story of Tony (Hensley), an aging, Italian-born vineyard owner in Napa Valley, and his misbegotten mail-order marriage to Amy (Maulella), a lonely, young waitress from San Francisco who once waited on him. Proposing by letter, Tony misrepresents himself by sending Amy a photo of his handsome foreman, Joe (Hutchison). When Amy arrives at Tony's vineyard to become his bride, she is astonished in finding out the truth and soon is drawn into a liaison with Joe."

Howard's work served as the basis for Frank Loesser's lushly operatic work The Most Happy Fella.

Tickets, priced $15, are available by calling (203) 227-4177 or by visiting www.westportplayhouse.org.