Stage, film and television star Judd Hirsch will do double duty, as both actor and director, in the Paper Mill Playhouse Production of Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning Best Play, Art. The subscription run at New Jersey's State Theatre begins Jan. 3, 2000 and runs through Feb. 4.
Additional casting and production team announcements are forthcoming, but Hirsch directed the play this past summer at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. The cast of that production featured William Atherton, Jack Willis and David Dukes.
Reza’s Art deals with three men, thrown into turmoil following the purchase of a piece of modern art, which happens to look like a plain white canvas. The conflict forces the friends to reevaluate and renew their bonds. Art won a Tony Award and has since toured the nation.
Hirsch performed in Art on Broadway in 1998, together with George Wendt and Joe Morton. The trio started their run on Dec. 22 of that year, taking over from Britain's Brian Cox, David Haig and Henry Goodman. Art began its original Broadway previews on Feb. 12, 1998 starring Victor Garber, Alan Alda and Alfred Molina . Art opened at the Royale on Mar. 1, 1998.
Hirsch began his stage career in 1964 at the Woodstock Playhouse playing Murray Burns in Herb Gardner's A Thousand Clowns and was subsequently twice honored with the Tony Award for Best Actor in both Mr. Gardner's I'm Not Rappaport and Conversations With My Father. He made his Broadway debut in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park and created the role of Matt Friedman in Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Talley's Folly, for which he was nominated for a Tony in 1980. On Broadway, he also starred in Neil Simon's Chapter Two and played the multi-faceted character of Wiseman in Jules Feiffer's Knock, Knock for which he won a Drama Desk Award. He made his TV debut in the Emmy Award-winning movie "The Law" and has since headlined four TV series: "Delvecchio," "Taxi" (two Emmy Awards), "Dear John" (Golden Globe Award), and "George & Leo" with Bob Newhart. Mr. Hirsch's film credits include "King of the Gypsies," "Ordinary People" (Oscar nomination), Herb Gardiner's "The Goodbye People," "Without a Trace," "Teachers," Sidney Lumet's "Running on Empty," "Independence Day," and the not-yet-released feature "The Virtuoso." -- By Murdoch McBride
