Glynis Johns has a date with A Coffin in Egypt on June 17, when she begins performances in that Horton Foote play at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY.
The production, which will run through July 5, is directed by Leonard Foglia, whose credits include Broadway's Master Class and the currently running Wait Until Dark.
Johns is, of course, best known for her role in the original Broadway production of A Little Night Music. Other Broadway credits include The Circle, Major Barbara, and Too Good to Be True. Her film work includes Mary Poppins, The Court Jester, and While You Were Sleeping.
Johns will be joined on stage by Mindy Washington, who appeared in Bay Street's production of Inspecting Carol. The design team for Coffin is set designer Michael McGarty (Wait Until Dark), costume designer Tom Broecker (Nine Armenians), and lighting designer Russell H. Champa (God Said, "Ha").
Foote won a Pulitzer Prize for his The Young Man From Atlanta. Coffin is described as a "haunting tale of passion, infidelity and murder." The rest of the Bay Street season includes James Warwick as Noel Coward and Twiggy as Gertrude Lawrence in the biographical revue Noel & Gertrude. The play, which will run July 15 to Aug. 2, looks at the relationship between actress Lawrence and playwright and actor Coward.
Debra Monk and Marsha Mason have been cast in House, the new Terrence McNally-Jon Robin Baitz collaboration which will wrap up the Bay Street season. It will begin performances on Aug. 12, for a run through Sept. 6.
The play concerns a couple buying a house from another couple. Act one, by Baitz, follows the sellers; act two, by McNally, the buyers. According to Bay Street spokesperson Eliza Rand, Monk will play half of the buying couple and Mason will portray half of the selling couple. The casting of the other characters, including the two husbands and a real estate broker, has not been announced. Joe Mantello, who directed McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! and Baitz's Three Hotels, will direct.
Mason was recently seen Off-Broadway as a condemned murderer reliving the events leading to her day of execution in the Blue Light Theatre Company's production of Michael Cristopher's Amazing Grace. Her other stage credits include the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of The Night of the Iguana.
Tony-winner Monk (for Redwood Curtain) was seen on Broadway last season in Lincoln Center's staging of O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness!. Other recent stage appearances include the Kander and Ebb musical Steel Pier.
For tickets and information on Bay Street events call (516) 725-9500.
-- By Robert Simonson
