Jennifer Westfeldt makes London theatre debut in THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES
Casting has been announced for the European premiere of Richard Greenberg’s The Assembled Parties, which plays at Hampstead Theatre from 17 October-22 November.
Directed by Blanche McIntyre, the cast includes Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein), Tracey-Ann Oberman (Eastenders, BBC), Daniel Abelson (Machinal, Old Vic), Julia Kass (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, West End), David Kennedy (Days of Significance, RSC), Alexander Marks (professional stage debut), and Sam Marks (The Fever Syndrome, Hampstead Theatre). Young actors Rex Bamber and Maxwell Rich share the role of young Timmy.
Talking about the play, Jennifer Westfeldt said: “I can’t possibly express how honoured I feel to be playing Julie in Richard Greenberg’s brilliant, beautiful play, The Assembled Parties. To have the opportunity to dig into a character with as much light and ebullience and wit and compassion and deep, visceral humanity as she has... is a precious gift.
“Richard Greenberg’s gorgeous play — and indeed, his entire body of work — is filled with sparkling wit, a symphony of glorious words and rhythms, and an uncanny depth of feeling that somehow never becomes maudlin.
“He had an utterly original, singularly brilliant voice, yet somehow he simultaneously conjured the greatest playwrights of the modern era: he had the wit of Noël Coward, the verbal dexterity of Shaw, the poetry of Tennessee Williams, and the bittersweet pathos and searing humanity of Chekhov.
“Working on this play feels like an absolute dream come true for me. And to be a small part of bringing this play to London for the first time feels like a double blessing.”
Director, Blanche McIntyre said: “I am thrilled to be able to direct this exquisite, sparkling, profound masterpiece by one of America’s most brilliant and insightful playwrights. At a time when the world feels increasingly unstable, it is a pleasure to work on a piece that speaks so tenderly about the bonds of family and the passing of time, and beyond exciting to have our dazzling, internationally renowned cast bringing it to life. I look forward enormously to presenting its European premiere.”
The Assembled Parties is a sharply observed portrait about an extended New York Jewish family. Former movie star Julie Bascov insists on taking Christmas seriously - despite her family’s reminders that that they are in fact Jewish. Every year, she and her impossibly well-heeled husband Ben host a feast in their palatial apartment on Central Park West. In December 1980, their son and his best friend Jeff come down from Harvard to join the party, and Jeff is dazzled by the Bascov clan. But when he returns for the same occasion twenty years later he finds that much that was sown in 1980 has been reaped in the intervening years…
The creative team also includes designer James Cotteril, lighting designer Malcolm Rippeth, sound designer John Leonard, and casting director Anna Cooper.
