Cast Announced for Benefit Playreading of Romantic Comedy “Any Wednesday” at Westport Country Playhouse on July 29

 By PAT BLAUFUSS

Joanna Gleason, Chris Sarandon, and Brian J. Carter Join Previously Announced Melissa Joan Hart in Fundraiser to Support Script in Hand Series

Tony Award winner Joanna Gleason, Academy Award nominee Chris Sarandon, and Off-Broadway/regional theater actor Brian J. Carter will join previously announced star of television, film, and theater Melissa Joan Hart in the romantic comedy “Any Wednesday,” a benefit playreading to support Westport Country Playhouse’s Script in Hand series, on one-night-only, Monday, July 29, 7 p.m.  Director is Anne Keefe, Playhouse associate artist.  Tickets to the benefit playreading and post-performance “Meet the Cast” reception are $100, $50, and $25. 

Casting is Fairfield County-based, with Hart and Carter Westport residents; Gleason and Sarandon, married since 1994, of Fairfield. “Any Wednesday” is about four people: John, played by Sarandon, a millionaire businessman and philanderer who visits his paramour in the executive suite every Wednesday; Ellen, his disarmingly innocent mistress, portrayed by Hart; Dorothy, his hoodwinked wife, played by Gleason; and Cass, a young man who is an irate victim of his devious practices, played by Carter.  The romantic comedy by Muriel Resnik was a 1964 Broadway hit, with Sandy Dennis, Don Porter, Gene Hackman, and Rosemary Murphy.  It was later made into a movie starring Jane Fonda and Jason Robards. Melissa Joan Hart can currently be seen in the ABC Family series “Melissa & Joey.” She is best known for her starring role in “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.”  The show inspired two “Wonderful World of Disney” movies, “Sabrina Goes to Rome” and “Sabrina Down Under.”  Hart first made her mark in television playing the title role in Nickelodeon’s “Clarissa Explains It All.”  In film, she starred in the romantic comedy “Drive Me Crazy,” for which she won a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award. She made her Broadway debut opposite Martin Sheen in “The Crucible,” and was most recently in Nora Efron’s Off-Broadway show “Love, Loss and What I Wore.” Joanna Gleason is the winner of numerous awards, including the 1988 Tony Award as Best Actress for Stephen Sondheim’s "Into the Woods.” She received a Tony nomination for "Joe Egg." She won a Theater World Award for "The Real Thing," and a Drama Desk Award for "Social Security."  She appeared at the Playhouse in “Come Be My Love,” an evening of poetry, and a reading of “Fallen Angels.” Chris Sarandon’s Broadway credits include “The Rothschilds,” “Two Gentlemen from Verona,” and “Nick and Nora.”  His films include “Dog Day Afternoon,” for which he received an Oscar nomination, and “The Princess Bride.”  He appeared at the Playhouse in “Sedition” by Weston playwright David Wiltse, “Come Be My Love,” and a reading of “Fallen Angels.”  Brian J. Carter was at Westport Country Playhouse in Script in Hand playreadings of “Golden Boy,” “Harvey,” “Holiday,” and “Beau Jest.” Off-Broadway, he was in the original production of “Wit,” as well as many other Off-Broadway and regional theater productions. Director Anne Keefe served as artistic director of Westport Country Playhouse with Joanne Woodward in 2008, and as associate artistic director from 2000-2006, also with Ms. Woodward. She co-directed with Ms. Woodward the Westport Country Playhouse production of “David Copperfield,” and directed many Script in Hand playreadings. Artists are subject to change. The benefit is generously sponsored by CohnReznick.  Script in Hand sponsors are Marc and Michele Flaster; Script in Hand partners are Ann Sheffer and Bill Scheffler.  The series is supported, in part, by the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), view Playhouse videos on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse) or get an insider’s peek on The Playhouse Blog (www.theplayhouseblog.org).

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