SOURCE: Fresh off his lauded New York production of Farragut North, director Doug Hughes reunites much of his ensemble cast, including Juno’s Olivia Thirlby, The Wire’s Isiah Whitlock, Jr, Mia Barron, Dan Bittner and Justin Huen, at the Geffen Playhouse to join the previously announced Chris Noth and Chris Pine. Noth, best known for his longtime stint as Detective Mike Logan on Law & Order and as the (in)famous Mr.Big on Sex and the City, is a fellow cast member from the Atlantic Theater Company’s NY production, while Pine, who is starring as the young Captain Kirk in the new film Star Trek and was recently seen in the Geffen’s production of Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig, is new to the LA production. Written by Beau Willimon, Farragut North was recently nominated for two Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play.
Set against the backdrop of a close presidential race, Farragut North is a timely tale of hubris, loyalty and the lust for power. Chris Pine takes on the role of Stephen, a young press secretary working for a fast-rising candidate. With confidence and power beyond his years, Stephen is convinced he and seasoned campaign manager, Paul, played by Chris Noth, can steer this team into the west wing without breaking a sweat. But that doesn’t mean it won’t take some spin. Working to snag positive coverage for his candidate, Stephen works with Ida Horowicz, a savvy New York Times reporter, played by Mia Barron (The House of Blue Leaves, The Coast of Utopia). Watching Stephen in awe as he works the system, is deputy press secretary Ben played by Dan Bittner, who recently appeared in The Vertical Hour on Broadway and can be currently seen on the big screen in Adventureland. Enter Olivia Thirlby as Molly, the bright-eyed flirtatious intern, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. as the conniving campaign manager for the rival candidate, and Stephen’s invincibility gets a run of its own.
With quick-witted banter and an inside look into the world of politics, Farragut North makes its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse. The play, which originally opened at New York’s Atlantic Theater Company in fall of 2008, is a 2007 recipient of an Edgerton Foundation grant for New American Plays.
The Geffen Playhouse isn’t the only LA entity interested in this script; according to Variety, Warner Bros is developing a feature adaptation with George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio attached to produce.
FARRAGUT NORTH (West Coast Premiere)
Written by Beau Willimon
Directed by Doug Hughes
Previews: Tuesday, June 16 – June 23, 2009
Opening Night: Wednesday, June 24
Closing Night: Sunday, July 26
Cast
Dan Bittner Ben
Mia Barron Ida Horowicz
Justin Huen Frank and a waiter
Chris Noth Paul Zara
Chris Pine Stephen Bellamy
Olivia Thirlby Molly
Isiah Whitlock, Jr Tom Duffy
Production Credits
Set Designer David Korins
Costume Designer Cathy Zuber
Lighting Designer Paul Gallo
Sound Designers David Van Tieghem, Walter Trarbach
Original Music David Van Tieghem
Video Collages Joshua White, Bec Stupak
Performance Schedule
Monday No performances
Tuesday – Thursday 7:30pm
Friday 8:00pm
Saturday 4:00pm; 8:30pm
Sunday 2:00pm; 7:00pm
Ticket Info
Tickets ($45 to $74) are on sale now at the Geffen Playhouse box office, online at GeffenPlayhouse.com, via credit card phone order at (310) 208-5454, at all Ticketmaster outlets, or by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.
Student rush tickets are available one hour prior to curtain for $15.
MIA BARRON (Ida Horowicz)
Recent work includes the revival of House of Blue Leaves (Mark Taper) and the off-Broadway premiere of Hillary (New Georges) New York credits include Tom Stoppard’s Tony award winning trilogy The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center, The Pain and the Itch, The World Over, She Stoops to Comedy (all at Playwrights Horizons), 1001(Page 73 productions); Hardball, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty (Summer Play Festival); The Grille Room, Sixteen Wounded (Cherry Lane); QED (Lincoln Center). In New York, she also co-wrote and performed in the Off-Broadway production of Big Times (directed by Leigh Silverman). Work at theatres around the country include New York Stage and Film, The Guthrie,The Long Wharf, The Acting Company, The Huntington, Westport Playhouse,The Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe among others. Television and film include Guiding Light, Blue Blood, The F Word, 27 Dresses, Righteous Kill, as well as a long running role as the voice of Molotov on The Venture Brothers (Cartoon Network). She is an MFA from the Graduate Acting Program at NYU.
DAN BITTNER (Ben)
Credits include (Broadway) The Vertical Hour dir Sam Mendes; (Off Broadway/Lincoln Center) The House in Town dir Doug Hughes; (Regional) Sherlock Holmes: Murder in Edinburgh, Macbeth; (Film) The Producers: The Movie Musical, The Last Girl on Earth [Tribeca Film Festival], Coda. Dan can currently be seen in Adventureland with dir Greg Mottola and the upcoming film Law Abiding Citizen with Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler; (TV) David Letterman. Dan received his BFA from Marymount Manhattan College
BEAU WILLIMON (Playwright)
Beau Willimon has written eight full-length plays as well as numerous one-acts. His work has been developed and performed at MCC, Cherry Lane, HERE Arts Center, New Dramatists, Daryl Roth 2, the Dayton Playhouse (Ohio), The Donmar Warehouse (London) and the Battersea Arts Center (London). Willimon is the recipient of the the Lila Acheson Wallace Juilliard Playwriting Fellowship, a Donmar Warehouse playwriting residency, the Seymour Brick Memorial Playwriting Prize, the Yale/Norfolk Arts Fellowship, the Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship, winner of the 2005 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest, and two-time winner of the Lincoln Center Le Compte du Nouy Award. His play, Lower Ninth, received its world premiere production at The Flea Theater earlier this year after initially being staged as part of Arielle Tepper’s 2007 Summer Play Festival. He is currently working on a commission for MTC Theatre. In addition to his work for the stage, Willimon is working on two films for Warner Brothers: the feature film adaptation of his play Farragut North and an adaptation of Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities. He is also writing a film adaptation of Peter Morgan’s mini-series The Jury for Fox 2000. Willimon holds an M.F.A. in playwriting from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He lives in Brooklyn.
JUSTIN HUEN (Frank / Waiter)
Justin Huen’s theater credits include Electricidad (Mark Taper Forum/CTG), Oedipus el Rey (Getty Villa), Strike-Slip (Actors’ Theatre of Louisville), Stones (Kirk Douglas Theatre/CTG), Zorro (TheatreWorks), My First Radical (Ojai Playwrights Festival), Dias Y Flores (Company of Angels), References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (Art/Works Theatre), Hero and Bitter Homes and Gardens (Playwrights’ Arena), dAWGS and The Atmosphere of Henry (Ivar Theatre) and The Legend of Jane & Joe (Ricardo Montalbán Theater). Film: Angel of Death, Hood Vengeance, The People I’ve Slept With, S.E.R.E, Ten ‘Til Noon, The Things We Carrie, North By El Norté, Reversion and Love Sick Diaries. TV: Weeds, NYPD Blue and Beta Test (in production). Huen is also an accomplished director, lighting designer, and Ovation Award-nominated set designer.
CHRIS NOTH (Paul Zara)
Chris Noth is an accomplished graduate of the Yale School of Drama that continues to build upon a versatile career in film, television and on stage. Some of his screen ventures include Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks; Tom DiCillo’s Double Whammy, with Denis Leary and Elizabeth Hurley; and the independent film Searching for Paradise. His additional film credits include Texas Funeral, Getting to Know You, The Broken Giant, Cold Around the Heart, Naked in New York, The Confession and Mr. 3,000 and The Perfect Man opposite Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear. He most recently shot the independent feature My One and Only opposite Renee Zellweger and could be seen as Mr. Big in the Sex and the City movie. Noth recently reprised his role as Detective Mike Logan on Law and Order: Criminal Intent. He originated this character during the first five seasons of Law & Order. Noth received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as Mr. Big on HBO’s Sex and the City. He recently starred and executive-produced the TNT original film Bad Apple, as well as starred as Roman general Pompey in the TNT epic miniseries Caesar opposite Christopher Walken and the late Richard Harris. His other telefilms include Exiled, TNT’s Rough Riders and Abducted: A Father’s Love. Noth received rave reviews as Teach in American Buffalo at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. He enjoyed a successful Broadway run of the revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, starring opposite Charles Durning and Michael Learned. He most recently starred in Farragut North at the Atlantic Theater Company in NY. Another New York performance was Christopher Shinn’s What Didn’t Happen at Playwright’s Horizons. He has also performed at the American Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut; New York’s Manhattan Club, Circle Rep, La Mama and the Roundabout Theater; the Seattle Repertory Theater; and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
CHRIS PINE (Stephen Bellamy)
Theater credits include The Atheist (Off Broadway), Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig (Geffen Playhouse) as well as Our Town, American Buffalo, No Exit, Waiting for Godot and Orestes while studying at the American Conservatory Theater and University of Leeds in the UK. He most recently appeared on the big screen in Paramount’s Star Trek as Captain James T. Kirk. Other Film credits include Carriers, Bottle Shock, Small Town Saturday Night, Smokin’ Aces, Blind Guy Driving and Just My Luck in which he is opposite Lindsay Lohan. Pine holds a degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley.
OLIVIA THIRLBY (Molly)
Theater credits include Uncommon Women and Biloxi Blues (French Woods Festival), Trewlawny Wells, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, You Can’t Take It With You and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Friends Seminary Black Box) and Many Happy Returns (Blue Heron Arts Center). Film credits include Juno, The Wackness, Snow Angels and Grandma as well as a role on NBC’s Kidnapped.
ISIAH WHITLOCK, JR. (Tom Duffy)
A veteran theater, film and television actor, can next be seen in Brooklyn’s Finest directed by Antoine Fuqua. He can also be seen in Spike Lee’s The 25th Hour and She Hate Me. His other film credits include Choke, Under New Management, 1408, Enchanted, Kettle of Fish, Pieces of April, Duane Hopwood, Jump Tomorrow, Harlem Aria, The Fish in the Bathtub, Everyone Says I Love You, The Spanish Prisoner, Eddie and Goodfellas.
Mr. Whitlock was nominated in 2002 for a Lucille Lortel award as Best Featured Actor for his work in “Four,” that enjoyed a renowned off-Broadway run at the Manhattan Theatre Club. “The Iceman Cometh”, “Merchant of Venice”, and “Mastergate” are among his Broadway credits, while “The Cherry Orchard”, “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, “Up Against The Wind”, “A Lesson Before Dying”, “High Life”, “Edmond”, “The American Clock”, “White Panther”, and “The Illusion” comprise his off-Broadway credits. He was also part of the national tour of the play “The Piano Lesson”, in the title role of Boy Willie. On television, Mr. Whitlock starred as Senator Clay Davis on HBO’s The Wire. Most recently, he has appeared on The Unusuals as ‘Captain Leslie Morgan’. Mr. Whitlock has been featured numerous times in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: SVU. He has garnered guest leads on The Chappelle Show, and has also been seen in Human Giant, New Amsterdam, Madigan Men, Wonderland, New York Undercover and the PBS documentary Liberty, as well as Third Watch and Ed.
Crap. Now all I have to do is win the lottery so that I can afford to go to LA to see the play. LOL If they do end up making a movie of it, I hope Chris is going to be in it. I would definitely see the movie.
It’s times like these I wish I lived in LA. =P Anyway, if they did make it into a movie, I would definitely go see it. With Clooney and DiCaprio involved, that would be a good movie.
After trying several times to get a decent seat online, I finally made it through for late June…so looks like I get to go. Yep..tickets can be expensive, but definitely looking forward to the play. Hope rehearsals are going well!
That’s awesome Rick! Your lucky! 😛
I would love to see Chris in that play. it sounds great. Hope anyone who goes has a wonderful time because anything he is in is well worth it.
Just purchased my ticket. 🙂 Oh, how I’ve missed the theatre. So glad my first play in a few years will be starring Chris.