Cast Complete for MCC's The Third Story with Kathleen Turner and Charles Busch

By Ernio Hernandez
December 8, 2008

Jennifer Van Dyck, Scott Parkinson, Sarah Rafferty and Jonathan Walker complete the cast for MCC Theatre's Off-Broadway production of Charles Busch's The Third Story featuring Kathleen Turner.

Carl Andress stages the work previously announced to star Turner and Busch as dueling divas. Previews for the New York premiere begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre Jan. 14, 2009 toward a Feb. 2 opening night. The run is currently slated to play through Feb. 28.

Previously seen at the La Jolla Playhouse, Busch's The Third Story centers on "a mother and son screenwriting team [who] hunker down in Omaha after fleeing Commie-obsessed 1940's Hollywood," according to production notes. "A romantically-inclined but socially inept princess makes a deal with an ancient witch. And tommy guns meet test tubes as a way-too-well-dressed first lady of the mob forms a desperate alliance with a cloning scientist whose experiments have had, um, less-than-consistent results. Gangster flicks, fairy tales and B-movie sci-fi collide in this epic comic fable from the sick and silly imagination of Charles Busch."

	Jennifer Van Dyck and Scott Parkinson in The Third Story in La Jolla.
	photo by J. T. MacMillan

Turner (The Graduate) and Busch (Die Mommie Die!) will be joined on stage by Van Dyck (Hedda Gabler), Parkinson (The Coast of Utopia), Rafferty (Gemini) and Walker (Twentieth Century). (Van Dyck, Parkinson and Walker appeared in the La Jolla run.)

Third Story replaced Neil LaBute's The Break of Noon on the MCC schedule. The latter work, to be seen in September 2009, was moved to not conflict with the upcoming Broadway transfer of LaBute's reasons to be pretty (previously seen Off-Broadway at MCC). Next up for the troupe is the musical Coraline (May 6-June 20, 2009), featuring music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt and a book by David Greenspan based on the novel by Neil Gaiman.

Tickets are currently available as part of MCC's 2-play subscription are now available for $99 via the company website. For more information visit mcctheater.org. The Lucille Lortel Theatre is located at 121 Christopher Street.