Playwrights Horizons signs stars

Maura Tierney, Annette O'Toole to perform

By GORDON COX

Tierney

O'Toole

Groff

Ivey

Maura Tierney, Jonathan Groff, Annette O'Toole and Dana Ivey have signed on to appear during the 2008-09 season at Off Broadway's Playwrights Horizons. Michael Mayer has come aboard to helm "Our House," the latest play by Theresa Rebeck.

Org also announced two more offerings for the season: Evan Smith's "The Savannah Disputation" and "Inked Baby" by Christina Anderson.

Tierney ("ER") will topline Nicky Silver's "Three Changes," playing one half of a married couple whose lives are disrupted by a visit from the husband's brother. Aya Cash and Brian J. Smith will also star in the production, to be helmed by Wilson Milam ("The Lieutenant of Inishmore") and begin perfs in August.

Groff ("Spring Awakening") will star with Cassie Beck and Skipp Sudduth in the fall offering "Prayer for My Enemy," Craig Lucas' play about a family's secrets dragged out over the course of one tempestuous night. Bartlett Sher ("South Pacific") helms.

O'Toole ("Smallville") stars in Adam Rapp's "Kindness," playing a mother who brings her teenage son to Manhattan. Rapp directs a cast that also includes Ray Anthony Thomas and Katherine Waterston.

Ivey ("Heartbreak House," "Butley") appears in "The Savannah Disputation." Play by Smith ("The Uneasy Chair") follows two sisters whose faith is challenged by a Pentecostal missionary. Walter Bobbie ("Chicago") helms the winter production, which will play the Playwrights' mainstage, the larger of its two spaces.

Anderson's "Inked Baby," helmed by Kate Whoriskey, involves a couple awaiting the birth of a child as the neighborhood around them is mysteriously contaminated. Play world preems in the spring.

Mayer ("Spring Awakening") helms the new play by Rebeck ("Mauritius"), which involves a news anchor, reality TV and a hostage drama. "Our House" bows in the spring.