Theatre, film, television and music star Michael McKean will reprise his role as donut shop owner Arthur Przybyszewski in the Broadway premiere of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s new American play Superior Donuts, by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning ensemble member Tracy Letts, directed by ensemble member Tina Landau.

Mr. McKean originated the role during Superior Donuts’ sold-out, world premiere at Steppenwolf last summer. Full casting will be announced shortly.

Superior Donuts will follow Letts’ Tony Award-winning play August: Osage County (which also had its world-premiere at Steppenwolf) into The Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street) with previews beginning Wednesday, September 16, 2009 and an official opening on Thursday, October 1, 2009. Tickets for Superior Donuts are on sale through Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200. The Music Theatre box office will open on Wednesday, August 19, 2009.

Arthur Przybyszewski owns a decrepit donut shop in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Franco Wicks, a black teenager who is his only employee, wants to change the shop for the better. This provocative comedy, set in the heart of one of Chicago’s most diverse communities, explores the challenges of embracing the past and the redemptive power of friendship.

Michael McKean most recently appeared on Broadway in the critically acclaimed 2008 revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, for which he received a Drama Desk award for Best Ensemble. His other Broadway credits include the 2006 Tony Award winning revival of The Pajama Game, Accomplice (Theatre World Award) and Hairspray. Off-Broadway: Woody Allen’s A Second Hand Memory. London: Love Song. TV: Series regular on Laverne & Shirley, Dream On, Sessions, Tracy Takes On, Saturday Night Live, Primetime Glick. Guest appearances include Friends, The X Files, The Simpsons, Law & Order, Smallville, Alias, Boston Legal. Film: This is Spinal Tap (also co-wrote), Clue, Coneheads, The Brady Bunch Movie, True Crime, Jack, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, Joshua, The Grand, many more. Composed music for several of the above and co-wrote (with Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy) the Grammy-winning theme to A Mighty Wind and the Oscar-nominated “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” written with wife Annette O’Toole.

Tracy Letts (Playwright) received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for best Play for his critically-acclaimed play August: Osage County, which played for more than a year and a half on Broadway following sold-out runs at Steppenwolf in 2007 and the National Theatre in London in 2008. Mr. Letts is also the author of Man from Nebraska, which was produced at Steppenwolf in 2003 and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize; Killer Joe, which has been produced in Chicago, London and New York; and Bug, which has played in New York, Chicago and London.

Tina Landau (Director) most recently directed The Tempest and Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she is an ensemble member, as well as The Time of Your Life (also Seattle Rep, A.C.T.), The Diary of Anne Frank, The Cherry Orchard, and Charles Mee’s Berlin Circle and Time to Burn, among others. She recently directed the world premieres of Tarell McCraney’s In the Red and Brown Water at the Alliance and McCarter Theaters, Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas at Long Wharf Theatre and the Off-Broadway premiere of McCraney’s Wig Out! at the Vineyard Theatre. Tina’s work as a writer and director include Of Thee I Sing (Paper Mill Playhouse), Beauty (La Jolla Playhouse), Space (Steppenwolf, NY’s Public Theatre, Mark Taper Forum), Stonewall (En Garde Arts), 1969 (Actors Theater of Louisville), Floyd Collins with composer Adam Guettel (Playwrights Horizons, Prince Music Theatre, Old Globe, the Goodman) and Dream True with composer Ricky Ian Gordon (Vineyard Theater). Other directing credits include Iphigenia 2.0 (Signature), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (McCarter/PaperMill), and the Broadway revival of Bells Are Ringing. Ms. Landau teaches at Yale School of Drama and is the co-author, with Anne Bogart, of The Viewpoints Book.

The Steppenwolf production of Superior Donuts is produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Richards, Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler and Jerry Frankel, the producing team behind Steppenwolf’s August: Osage County.

About Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon. The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of 42 artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting, filmmaking and textual adaptation. For additional information, visit steppenwolf.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:

David Rosenberg, 312-654-5656
drosenberg@steppenwolf.org