Daniel Aukin directs the production that stars Tony Award winner Mary Louise Wilson and Gabriel Ebert. Previews began June 6, and the play was originally scheduled to run through July 2 at the Duke.
LCT3, which serves as the new works developmental lab for Lincoln Center Theater, is presenting the run, which will now play an additional week of performances. 4000 Miles will re-open in spring 2012 as part of Lincoln Center Theater's regular season. The production marks the first of LCT3's new works model to graduate to a full Off-Broadway run at Lincoln Center Theater.
Audiences familiar with Herzog's family play After the Revolution, which was seen at Playwrights Horizons in late 2010, will note that the character of Vera returns for her latest work. Wilson now takes on the role of Vera (played by Lois Smith in Revolution). Critics were particularly taken with Wilson's performance.
In addition to stage veteran Wilson and Ebert, the cast also features Greta Lee and Zoe Winters. A representative for LCT said the intention was to reunite the current cast for the 2012 run.
According to LCT3, "After losing his best friend while they were on a cross-country bike trip, 21-year-old Leo (Ebert) seeks solace from his feisty 91-year-old grandmother (Wilson) in her West Village apartment. 4000 Miles examines how these two outsiders find their way in today's world." Lee last appeared on Broadway in the revival of David Hirson's La Bête. Winters appeared in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of The Importance of Being Earnest in 2009. Ebert was seen on Broadway in Brief Encounter and understudied the role of Ken in the Tony-winning drama Red.
Wilson won the Tony Award and received Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for her performance in Grey Gardens. Her other credits include Full Gallop (as Diana Vreeland, for which she won a Drama Desk Award), the revival of Cabaret (Tony Award nomination), Show Boat, Fools, Prelude to a Kiss, Gypsy and Flora The Red Menace. Read the Playbill.com feature about Mary Louise Wilson.
Herzog's plays have been produced or developed at the Yale School of Drama, Ensemble Studio Theater, Arena Stage, New York Stage and Film, Provincetown Playhouse and ACT in San Francisco.
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Citing the need to develop strong relationships with new artists and to develop a new audience, and recognizing the frustrations that playwrights have with the current system of readings and workshops, Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of artistic director Andre Bishop and executive producer Bernard Gersten) created LCT3 to offer new artists fully staged productions. Paige Evans is the director of LCT3.
