The Tony Award-winning play, Side Man, will end its lengthy Broadway run on Halloween, Oct. 31. Warren Leight's drama will have run 23 previews and 409 performances at the John Golden Theatre.
The drama began its New York life at off-Broadway's CSC March 3, 1998, running 7 previews and 35 regular performances before its move to the Roundabout's now-defunct mainstage Stage Right space for 27 previews and 93 regular 93 performances before its move to the Golden. (Completionists might want to add that the show's first staging was at Vassar College, for 12 performances.)
The current cast, which will travel en masse to Washington DC's Kennedy Center for a run in the show Nov. 3-28, includes Andrew McCarthy ("Heaven Help Us"), Michael O'Keefe ("Caddyshack," "The Great Santiia"), Angelica Torn, Joseph Lyle Taylor, Kevin Geer, Michael Mastro and Marissa Matrone. Understudies are Jennifer Carta, Geoffrey P. Cantor and Jeff Binder.
According to a spokesperson at the Springer/Chicoine press office, urther fplans for the show may include London, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities. (Independent productions of Side Man have also sprung up, including current mountings at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati).
The show tells how a man's love of jazz ruins his marriage -- and his wife's sanity. McCarthy, known for such films as "Mannequin," "Weekend at Bernie's," "Pretty in Pink" and "St. Elmo's Fire," was generally acknowledged as a member of "The Brat Pack" -- a group of teen actors in the 1980s who starred in John Hughes-helmed films like "The Breakfast Club," "Weird Science," and "Pretty in Pink." Other Brat Pack members included Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall and Jon Cryer.
In recent years, McCarthy has turned to the boards, having earlier in the year starred in Horton Foote's The Death of Papa at Hartford Stage. McCarthy replaced the previously-announced Matthew Broderick in that production, when the latter pulled out to accompany Night Must Fall into an extended commercial run. McCarthy's other credits include The Boys of Winter on Broadway.
Adding McCarthy marks the third time in its long run that Side Man has opted to bring in a young star to perk up box-office receipts. When the show moved from The Roundabout to its current home at The John Golden Theatre, Christian Slater was cast as Clifford.
For ticket information on Side Man at Broadway's John Golden Theatre, call (212) 239-6200.
