Martin, Lebow, McGrath, Thompson and Wehle Join Williamstown Festival

By Adam Hetrick
June 25, 2009

Tony Award-winning actress Andrea Martin has joined the cast of the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of George Kelly's The Torchbearers.

Martin (Exit the King, My Favorite Year) joins a cast that features Tony winners John Rubenstein (Children of a Lesser God), Marian Seldes (Deuce, Dinner at Eight) and Katie Finneran (Noises Off), as well as Jessica Hecht (Howard Katz, After the Fall), Emmy winner Edward Herrmann ("The Practice"), Yusef Bulos (Fiddler on the Roof), Phillip Goodwin (Tartuffe), Lizbeth MacKay (All My Sons), John Doherty and Becky Ann Baker (All My Sons).

Previously announced Tony nominated actress Dana Ivey has withdrawn from the production due to a knee injury. Dylan Baker directs Torchbearers, which will run July 29-Aug. 9.

Williamstown has also revealed casting for Melinda Lopez' Caroline in Jersey, which runs Aug. 5-16 on the Nikos Stage.

Amanda Charlton directs a cast including Will Lebow (Sheer Madness), Matt McGrath (Cabaret, "Boys Don't Cry"), Lea Thompson ("Back to the Future," Cabaret, "Caroline in the City") and Brenda Wehle (Come Back, Little Sheba, Pygmalion).

Caroline in Jersey will have set design by Andrew Boyce, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Jake DeGroot, sound design by Bart Fasbender and original music by Kyle Jarrow.

On Aug. 2 the festival will offer a one-night-only presentation of Steve Lawson's Blanche and Beyond, starring Richard Thomas ("Taking Woodstock," "The Waltons").

The 7 PM presentation, according to press notes, "is the stage sequel to Lawson's A Distant Country Called Youth. While the first play traced the evolution of a young man finding his artistic voice, Blanche and Beyond spans the peak of Williams' career – the period of Streetcar, Rose Tattoo, Summer and Smoke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – and explores a no-longer obscure playwright facing the seismic shock of international fame."

For more information on WTF, visit WilliamstownTheatreFestival.