In its final weekend at Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre, the well received revival of Bosoms and Neglect will feature surprise stand in B.D. Wong, with script in hand, as the frazzled lover and son in John Guare's comedy-drama.
Wong steps in for David Aaron Baker, whose production schedule for a movie role was altered this week, requiring him on location. Baker's final performance is Jan. 8, 1999. Wong will go on stage opposite Kate Finneran (playing a romantic interest) and Mary Louise Wilson (playing his sick mother) for two performances, Jan. 9 and one Jan. 10.
The switch is done with the blessing of Guare and director Nicholas Martin, said press rep James Morrison. There was a threat that the final weekend might have to be scuttled, as there is no understudy for the role.
Wong apparently had the weekend free before he begins work toward the Broadway musical revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, beginning previews Jan. 23, 1999 at the Ambassador Theatre. In it, Wong (M Butterfly, As Thousands Cheers) plays the blanket-carrying "Peanuts" character Linus.
* Mary Louise Wilson, lately of Cabaret , heads the cast of the Signature Theatre Company's production of Bosoms and Neglect. Bosoms is the second play in Signature's season-long examination of the work of playwright John Guare. Bosoms began previews Dec. 1 and opened Dec. 13, 1998.
Martin, recently tapped to helm Christopher Durang's latest (Betty's Summer Vacation) at Playwrights Horizons, also directed Wilson in her one-person show, Full Gallop .
In Bosoms, Wilson plays a domineering though bedridden matriarch. David Aaron Baker, playing Wilson's son, has appeared in New York in Once Upon a Mattress , Blue Window and The Moliere Comedies. Finneran has been seen in Broadway's Proposals and The Heiress.
*
The original Broadway production of Bosoms and Neglect starred Kate Reid and lasted three days. Anne Meara appeared in the revival which enjoyed a longer run. In a 1997 interview with Playbill On-Line, playwright Paula Vogel cited Bosoms as one of the more influential and devastating experiences in her years of going to the theatre.
For memberships and information on the Signature Theatre season call (212) 244-PLAY.
-- By Kenneth Jones
and Robert Simonson
