Stephen DiMenna will direct Morris Panych's "darkly glorious comedy of a self-obsessed nephew summoned to his aunt's death bed," Vigil, on the Westport stage Feb. 26-Mar. 15, 2008.
Westport artistic director Tazewell Thompson will stage Jon Marans' A Strange and Separate People, which runs April 1-19. Marans, who penned Old Wicked Songs, "illuminates the life of a Jewish wife and mother caught in an unexpected and unconventional love affair" in A Strange and Separate People.
Craig Wright's The Pavilion, described as "an Our Town for our time, is both romantic and cosmic. If you didn't marry your high school sweetheart, at some point you thought about how things could have been." Chad Rabinovitz directs the production, which runs May 13-31.
Hot 'n Cole: A Cole Porter Celebration!, directed and choreographed by Anthony Salatino, runs June 10-28. Devised by David Armstrong, Mark Waldrop and Bruce W. Coyle, the revue celebrates the life and work of the composer of Kiss Me, Kate; Anything Goes; and Can-Can.
Scramble!, David Wiltse's "comic romp of office politics in a golf magazine gone gleefully awry," runs July 8-26. Tracy Bridgen directs. Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad — who is headed back to Broadway in February 2008 in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — will star in another Williams work, Sweet Bird of Youth, at Westport. Williams' poetic work, which will be directed by Tazewell Thompson, follows a young drifter who returns to his hometown with a faded movie star in tow. Sweet Bird of Youth runs Aug. 5-23.
Anne Keefe directs the stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, chronicling the dreams of two Depression-era migrant workers, Oct. 7-25.
Complete casting for the 2008 Westport season will be announced at a later date.
Subscription tickets for the Westport Country Playhouse 2008 season are currently on sale. Tickets are available by calling (203) 227-4177 or by visiting www.westportplayhouse.org.