Endpapers, the new Thomas McCormack play about the publishing industry, goes out of print on Oct. 27. The drama will have play 13 previews and 144 full performances.

Endpapers is directed by Pamela Berlin, and will relinquish the Variety Arts Theatre to Adult Entertainment, a new comedy by Elaine May. The show opened June 23 with little fanfare and turned into a modest hit. The venture is produced by Benjamin Mordecai.

In an original promotion early in the run, the producers of the new play—which is about the publishing industry—offered a free ticket during previews to anyone who brought a rejection letter to the Variety Arts Theatre box office.

In an article in the New York Times, McCormack, the former CEO of St. Martin's Press, told how he wrote a play in his youth which got him into the Edward Albee-Richard Barr Playwrights Unit in the late '60s. But when he unexpectedly became head of St. Martin's, he put his playwriting career on hold—for 30 years. Endpapers is only his second play.

Tim Hopper tops the cast of Endpapers. Hopper has appeared on Broadway in Present Laughter with Frank Langella and Off Broadway in Craig Lucas' The Dying Gaul. He is a member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Also in the cast are Shannon Burkett (The Ride Down Mt. Morgan), William Cain (A Delicate Balance), Beth Dixon (Wrong Mountain), Alex Draper, Bill Kux, Bruce McCarty, Pippa Pearthree, Greg Salata, Maria Thayer, Neil Vipond (Oliver Wadsworth returns Oct. 28).

The Variety Arts is located at 110 Third Avenue (at 14th Street). Call (212) 239-6200 for ticket information.

— By Robert Simonson