COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

PRESS CONTACT: Brett Singer (212)307-7181

Performances Begin On Tuesday January 25^th!

Opening Set For Sunday, January 30^th at 2pm

Full Cast List Announced Below

The Peccadillo Theater Company To Present

Counsellor-At-Law

Written by Elmer Rice, Directed by Dan Wackerman

Starring Tony Award Winner John Rubinstein

At Theatre at St. Clement's (423 West 46th Street)

January 18, 2005

The Peccadillo Theater Company is pleased to announce that their highly acclaimed production of Elmer Rice’s 1931 legal drama Counsellor-At-Law will return for a 6 week off-Broadway engagement. Previews will begin on Tuesday January 25^th at the Theatre at St. Clement’s, located at 423 West 46^th Street. This is the first Peccadillo production to transfer from the company’s home at Bank Street Theatre for an extended run.

Elmer Rice's Counsellor-At-Law is a tightly plotted melodrama about a cynical attorney's struggle to avoid disbarment. Having bootstrapped his way out of the Jewish ghetto, George Simon finds himself at the mercy of an anti-Semitic rival, who knows that, years earlier, George perjured himself to save a friend from the old neighborhood. Ironically, George's "crime" was also an act of compassion and serves to highlight exactly how far this apparently successful man has strayed from the liberal values of his youth.

Counsellor was a hit with audiences and critics when it ran in May of this year. Writing for The New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder said that "Entertainment in abundance radiates from the sparkling new production of the old Elmer Rice drama Counsellor-at-Law…[The Peccadillo Theater Company] has found a play that throbs with New York life." Howard Kissel of the Daily News wrote that Counsellor was "Spectacular…A compelling, hugely entertaining evening of theater." Writing in the Village Voice, Michael Feingold called the Peccadillo production a “revelation” and that, as a play, Counsellor is “nearly as fine in its brash way as the half-dozen best American plays.” Of the director, Feingold wrote that “[Dan Wackerman] not only bring(s) off Rice's busy mosaic, but also give(s) it a contemporary vividness without trashing its period tone.” The other reviews were similarly enthusiastic.

The cast will once again be led by John Rubinstein, who made his Broadway debut in Pippin, won a Tony Award for Children of a Lesser God and was most recently seen on Broadway in Ragtime. Rounding out the cast will be D. Michael Berkowitz, Mary Carver, Nat Chandler, Corinne Fitamant, Beth Glover, Nell Gwynn, Steven Hack, Jane Lanier, David Lavine, Mark Light-Orr, Lanie MacEwan, Sal Mistretta, Robert O’Gorman, Ginger Rich, Justin Riordan, Tara Sands, Gael Schaefer, Brian N. Taylor and Ashley West.

The Peccadillo Theater Company was founded in 1994 with the goal of producing forgotten American classics – “forgotten” in the sense that most of the work the company does is rarely revived in New York City, and “classic” in the sense of enduring theatrical value. Their first production was Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, more recently, the company presented a highly acclaimed revival of John Colton’s The Shanghai Gesture and a new production of Dorothy Parker’s The Ladies of the Corridor.

Counsellor-At-Law will begin performances on Tuesday, January 25^th and will continue through Sunday, March 6^th. The schedule will be Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00pm, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm. Tickets are $55 and may be purchased by calling Smarttix at (212) 868-4444, or online at www.smarttix.com. Photos will be available for download at www.brettsinger.com/clients/peccadillo.html.

Counsellor-At-Law

Written By Elmer Rice, Directed by Dan Wackerman

Presented by The Peccadillo Theater Company

Off-Broadway Engagement

At Theatre at St. Clement's (423 West 46^th Street between 9^th and 10^th Avenues)

SCHEDULE: Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm

January 25^th Through March 6^th

Opening: Sunday, January 30^th