In the new revival — and first Broadway production — of the 1983 play, Mary-Louise Parker plays Rachel, who learns on Christmas Eve that her husband, Tom (played by Tom Sadoski), has hired a hitman to break into their home at night and kill her.
The news sends Rachel on a odyssey on which she will encounter oddballs and strangers, including Lloyd (played by Michael O'Keefe) and his parapalegic wife, Pooty (played by Rosie Perez), plus a talk show host, assorted derelicts and a half-dozen doctors (all played by Debra Monk).
Olga Merediz and Jeremy Shamos are also featured in the staging of Reckless, directed by Mark Brokaw. Manhattan Theatre Club and Second Stage are partnering to produce the play, which is scheduled to end its limited run Dec. 5. Opening is Oct. 14.
On Sept. 19, Parker won a 2004 Emmy Award for her work in TV's "Angels in America." She played Pooty in the motion picture, "Reckless," which starred Mia Farrow as a lost and forlorn Rachel.
This production reunites Parker (a Tony Award winner for Proof) with MTC, as well as with Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss) and director Mark Brokaw (How I Learned to Drive). Here's how MTC bills the play: "Rachel, a runaway wife, needs to dodge a murderous husband, numerous psychiatrists and an assortment of shady characters in a bizarre, hilarious and sometimes nightmarish journey."
Manhattan Theatre Club, well-regarded for its Off Broadway productions, operates the Biltmore as its Broadway home. Second Stage is the Off-Broadway troupe usually associated with second looks at works. This is a rare Broadway venture for the latter.
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Reckless was first staged, in an earlier form, by The Production Company in 1983 under the direction of Norman René. Jan Eliasberg directed a South Coast Repertory production in 1985. Steve Schachter directed an Atlantic Theater Company staging in 1987.
The first performance of the 1989 published version of Reckless was on Sept. 14, 1988 at New York's Circle Repertory Company, directed by Norman René. Robin Bartlett played Rachel.
Parker, who won her Tony for her leading role in David Auburn's Proof (an MTC staging), also garnered a Tony nomination for her previous Lucas-penned work Prelude to a Kiss. On stage, she has also been seen in Bus Stop, Communicating Doors, How I Learned to Drive (directed by Brokaw), Four Dogs and a Bone, The Art of Success and The Age of Pie.
She had a recurring role on the NBC drama "The West Wing" appeared in such films as "Boys on the Side," "Grand Canyon," "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Portrait of a Lady," "Bullets Over Broadway."
A former actor, Lucas has penned the plays The Dying Gaul, God's Heart, Blue Window, Missing Persons, Stranger and This Thing of Darkness. His new work Small Tragedy played at Playwrights Horizons in 2003-04. Lucas also wrote the book for the dawning musical The Light in the Piazza and conceived Marry Me a Little (a conceptual revue of songs by Stephen Sondheim). He also penned the libretto for the opera to Orpheus in Love.
His new play, The Singing Forest, recently earned raves in Seattle.
Tickets ($81-$26) are available by calling TeleCharge.com at (212) 239-6200. Visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com.
