New York, NY (Top40 Charts) La Femme Theatre Productions (Jean Lichty, Executive Director), renowned for its dedication to showcasing the diverse female experience, is set to illuminate the Off-Broadway stage this season with an evocative 21st-century production of Tennessee Williams's timeless masterpiece, The Night of the Iguana. Under the direction of Tony Award nominee Emily Mann, this production will star Emmy Nominee Tim Daly (Broadway: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. TV: "The Sopranos," "Madam Secretary," "Wings') as Rev. Shannon, Tony Award - Winner Daphne Rubin-Vega (Broadway: Rent, Anna in the Tropics) as Maxine Faulk,
Drama Desk nominee Lea DeLaria (Netflix "Orange Is the New Black." Broadway: POTUS) as
Judith Fellowes, Tony nominee Austin Pendleton (Broadway: Between Riverside and Crazy, The Minutes) as Nonno, and Jean Lichty (Off-Broadway: La Femme's A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, The Traveling Lady ) as
Hannah Jelkes. It will begin performances on December 6 in advance of its opening on December 17. It will run through February 25, 2024 at The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing
Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street, Jim Houghton Way).
The Night of the Iguana is not a production of Signature Theatre. In Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana, a defrocked clergyman encounters inside disturbances amid outside disturbances during one stormy night at the Costa Verde Hotel in Acapulco as the world prepares for World War II. After four women of different ages and backgrounds, along with a 97-year-old poet, engage in the clergyman's spiritual struggles, their lives leap dramatically forward. And the catalytic, defrocked clergyman survives the night.
"THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA poses critical questions of faith and identity that are particularly relevant today as we navigate a paradoxically divided yet open world. Tennessee offers an answer by writing an epic that he described as "a play about love in its purest terms." And La Femme is thrilled to render this production for the 21st century, directed by the great Emily Mann." La Femme Executive
Director Jean Lichty
Additional cast includes Carmen
Berkeley (Off-Broadway's Our Dear Dead Drug Lord) as Charlotte, Eliud Kauffman (Roundabout Theatre's 72 Miles to Go) as Hank, Keith Randolph Smith (Broadway's Jitney, American Psycho) as Jake, Bradley
James Tejeda (Broadway's The Inheritance) as Pedro, and Dan Teixeira (Off-Broadway: Harmony: A New Musical) as Pancho. The creative team includes Tony Award winners Beowulf Boritt (Set Design), Jennifer von Mayrhauser (Costume Design), Jeff Croiter (Lighting Design), and Darron L West (Sound Design), Kathy Fabian (Prop Design) with Amy Stoller (Dramaturg and Language Consultant),
Stephanie Klapper Casting (Casting Director), Tinc Productions (Production Management), and LDK Productions / Lisa Dozier Shacket (General Management).
La Femme initially presented The Night of the Iguana as a benefit digital presentation in 2020, directed by Emily Mann. It featured Dylan McDermott, Phylicia Rashad, and Roberta Maxwell. The benefit raised over $30K for The Actors Fund.
LA FEMME THEATRE PRODUCTIONS (Jean Lichty, Executive Director) is an all-inclusive theater company dedicated to the exploration and celebration of the universal female experience. La Femme launched in 2014 as an associate producer of
William Inge's lost gem, A Loss of Roses, featuring Deborah Hedwall and
Patricia Hodges, which Terry Teachout called "a triumphant exhumation" and included in the Wall Street Journal's "2014 Best Theater," followed by Clifford Odets's Rocket to the Moon, featuring Katie McClellan, Marilyn Matarrese, Ned Eisenberg, Larry Bull, and Jonathan Hadary -
Drama Desk nomination. Then, La Femme co-produced Ingmar Bergman's Nora and the Off-Broadway hit - Horton Foote's The Traveling Lady - featuring Tony Award winner
Karen Ziemba and Lynn Cohen. In 2018, La Femme produced Williams's A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur with Kristine Nielsen and Annette O'Toole and, in 2020, streamed a digital presentation of his The Night of the Iguana, directed by Emily Mann and featuring Dylan McDermott and Phylicia Rashad.
EMILY MANN is a Tony-nominated playwright and director and the Tony Award-winning former Artistic
Director of the McCarter Theatre Center, where she wrote 15 new plays/adaptations, directed over 50 shows, and produced 180 productions. Broadway productions include Execution of Justice, Having Our Say, Anna in the Tropics, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Currently directing The Pianist at the
George Street Playhouse, she wrote the new musical On Cedar Street, Having Our Say, Execution of Justice, Still Life, Annulla, An Autobiography; Greensboro (A Requiem), Meshugah, Mrs. Packard, Hoodwinked (a Primer on Radical Islamism), and seven adaptations. Her play, Gloria: A Life, ran Off-Broadway and aired on PBS's Great Performances. Her many awards include the Peabody, Hull Warriner, NAACP, 6 Obies, Guggenheim, Tony,
Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwrights' Award, Margo Jones Award, TCG Visionary Leadership Award, Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Theater Hall of Fame.
The Night of the Iguana will begin performances on December 6, 2023 - February 25, 2024; opening night is December 17, 2023. It will play Wednesday - Friday at 7:30 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and 8 PM, and Sunday at 3 PM. The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing
Square Signature Center is located at 480 West 42nd Street, Jim Houghton Way. Tickets are $59 - $159 and can be purchased by visiting IguanaPlayNYC.com.
Follow on social media @IguanaPlayNYC.
