Two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Casa Valentina, Assassins, Take Me Out, Sting's Broadway-bound The Last Ship) will direct the Broadway premiere of Lisa D'Amour's new play Airline Highway following its world premiere Steppenwolf production in Chicago.
The Broadway production will begin previews April 1, 2015 and open April 23, 2015 at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Broadway cast and crew haven't yet been announced, but the Chicago cast of 14 includes Judith Ivey (Blithe Spirit, Follies, The Heiress, "The Devil's Advocate," "White Collar") and Scott Jaeck (August: Osage County), with scenic design by Scott Pask, costume Design by David Zinn and lighting design by Japhy Weideman. It's scheduled to run December 4, 2014 to February 8, 2015.
Airline Highway's published synopsis reads: "In the parking lot of The Hummingbird, a once-glamorous motel on New Orleans' infamous Airline Highway, a group of friends gather. A rag-tag collection of strippers, hustlers and philosophers have come together to celebrate the life of Miss Ruby, an iconic burlesque performer who has requested a funeral before she dies. The party rages through the night as old friends resurface to pay their respects. A world premiere from the author of Detroit, Airline Highway is a boisterous and moving ode to the outcasts that make life a little more interesting."
D'Amour has returned to her roots for her new play, at least insofar as New Orleans is her hometown. She is known as one half of the Obie-winning performing duo PearlDamour (Milton, How to Build a Forest). Her previous play, called Detroit though set in an unidentified suburb, was directed at Steppenwolf by Austin Pendleton in 2010 with Laurie Metcalf and Kevin Anderson in the cast. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2011, it lost out to Clybourne Park. After it opened Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons two years later, with a cast that included David Schwimmer, Amy Ryan and John Cullum, it won the 2013 Obie Award for Best New American Play.
