Off-Broadway is now taking reservations for Hotel Universe. The seldom-staged Philip Barry play is the Blue Light Theatre Company's fourth and last production of the 1999-2000 season. The show runs April 18-May 7, with an April 27 opening.
Darko Tresnjak directs a cast that features Arija Bareikis (The Last Night of Ballyhoo and seen recently in The Moment When Off Broadway), Cheryl Lynn Bowers, Liam Craig (Stop Kiss), Richard Easton (Waste), Keira Naughton (Uncle Jack), Gregor Paslawski, Kali Rocha (The Altruists), Armand Schultz (The Herbal Bed) and Adam Stein.
Hotel Universe was first staged in 1930. An unusual work for Barry, who is better known for his urbane comedies The Philadelphia Story and Holiday, the story takes place in a villa on the Mediterranean which was once a small hotel of bizarre reputation. Living there is Ann Field, who is nursing a demented father. When a group of American friends pay a visit, they are struck by the place's gloomy atmosphere, become introspective and relive memories from their childhoods.
The original production, which ran two hours without intermission, featured Franchot Tone, Glenn Anders and Ruth Gordon. It played only 72 performances.
* Blue Light recently opened Jessica Goldberg's The Hologram Theory, a thriller about a woman who travels from her home in Trinidad to New York City to find and bury her brother. Pulled into a society of rich folk, club kids and the media in Manhattan, she uncovers the mysteries of her brother's world.
Kellie Overbey, whose Broadway credits include Present Laughter opposite Frank Langella, Betty's Summer Vacation and Buried Child, is featured in the piece, which stars Joie Susannah Lee (Mulebone). Lee's film credits include several Spike Lee works as well as "Personals" and "A Kiss Before Dying."
Also in the Hologram cast are Daniel Bess, T.R. Knight (This Lime Tree Bower), Chris Messina, Michael Alexis Palmer, Jennifer Rau, Elizabeth Reaser, Corey Stoll and Bill Torres.
Directed by Ruben Polendo, Hologram runs through April 9. As with Adam Baum and the Jew Movie, the show plays at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, former home of Second Stage Theatre and Blue Light's year-long residence for the season.
--By Robert Simonson
and David Lefkowitz
