Filmdom's Elliott Gould stars as a middle-aged widower having an affair with a neurotic 24-year-old woman in Paddy Chayefsky's Middle of the Night, set for L.A. Theatre Works readings March 20-24. Carol Kane ("Man on the Moon," "Addams Family Values") is also in the cast, directed by actor John Rubinstein.
L.A. Theatre Works was founded in 1974 and is devoted to "audio theatre" — the reading of plays for live audiences, broadcast and recordings.
Gould's many film roles include Trapper John in "M*A*S*H," Ted in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," Max Devlin in "The Devil and Max Devlin," Murray in "American History X" and Reuben Tishkoff in the new "Ocean's Eleven."
Also in the cast are Amy Pietz ("The Weber Show," "Caroline in the City") and Kenneth Alan Williams, who are husband and wife.
In Middle of the Night, the widower and the twenty-something — his secretary — fight their families' wishes to carry on a relationship. His biggest worry is impotence, while hers is an uncontrollable desire to possess everyone and everything in her search for love. Originally a TV drama, Middle of the Night premiered on Broadway in 1956 with Edward G. Robinson. A screenwriter as well as a playwright, Chayefsky is best remembered for his prize-winning films, "Network" and "Marty." The latter is the subject of a Charles Strouse musical, which starred Jason Alexander and later John C. Reilly in its early readings.
Tickets are $10-$40. Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. For reservations, call (310) 827-0889.
All Theatre Works theatre productions are recorded for future broadcast on public radio, on XM Satellite Radio and are sold on the L.A. Theatre Works homepage at http://www.latw.org.
In the past 11 years, productions have won several awards including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Gold and Silver Awards, three Sony Awards, the Writer's Guild of America's Best Comedy Award and the 1999 Audie Award for Best Dramatic Production from the Audio Publishers Association. Their recording of The Prisoner of Second Avenue, featuring Richard Dreyfuss and Mason, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album.
— By Christine Ehren
