Life Sentences
By Richard Nelson / Directed by John Caird

With Edward Herrmann and Michelle Joyner

Set by Thomas Lynch, Lighting by Richard Nelson, Costumes by Ann Roth, Sound by Mark Bennett, Hair by Antonio Soddu, Production Stage Manager Marjorie Horne, Press Representative Richard Kornberg, Casting by Meg Simon, Stage Manager Mark Cole, Associate Producer Carol Fishman

Part One of Life Sentences was first produced as The End of a Sentence by American Playhouse Television, Lindsay Law, Executive Producer.

Support for this season came through participation in the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Resident Theater Initiative.

"Thoughtfully directed and handsomely acted."
— John Simon, New York Magazine

"British director John Caird puts together an attractive production. The minimal sets by Thomas Lynch delicately suggest place and mood, and so does the lighting from the designer Richard Nelson. Second Stage got wholeheartedly behind a dramatist and a script."
— Alexis Greene, Theater Week

"John Caird has staged it with an easy, colloquial brilliance. He is helped by Michelle Joyner's charmingly Cressida-like Mia, but most of all by Edward Herrmann's faultless performance as Burke."
— Clive Barnes, New York Post

Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants
Written and performed by Ricky Jay / Directed by David Mamet

Set by Kevin Rigdon, Lighting by Jules Fisher, Consultants Jim Steinmeyer and Michael Weber, Costume by Alan Bilzerian, Production Stage Manager Matthew Silver, Associate Producer Carol Fishman, Press Representative Richard Kornberg

"Ricky Jay is a genius. Dexterous, funny, entirely elegant. His style shimmers and dazzles. A glorious and grand illusion."
— Clive Barnes, New York Post

"He's a master's master. Is this theater? You bet it is. You aren't asked to suspend disbelief - you have no choice."
— Vincent Canby, The New York Times

"If wonder is truly the beginning of wisdom, then Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants is the smartest show in town."
— Jay Cocks, Time Magazine

"He's so good, one doesn't ask how he does it, but simply accepts it as magic."
— David Patrick Stearns, USA Today

The Family Of Mann
By Theresa Rebeck / Directed by Pamela Berlin

With Reed Birney, Richard Cox, David Garrison, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Anne Lange, Robert Duncan McNeill, Julie White

Set by Derek McLane, Lighting by Natasha Katz, Costumes by Lindsay W. Davis, Original Music and Sound by Jeremy Dyman Grody, Production Stage Manager James Fitzsimmons, Stage Manager Elaine Bayless, Associate Producer Carol Fishman, Casting by Meg Simon, Press Representative Richard Kornberg

Sponsored by AT&T; Additional funding was provided by The Axe-Houghton Foundation.

"All the acting, under Pamela Berlin's smooth direction, is smartly on target. When Theresa Rebeck's funny, she's savagely funny. When she's serious, she draws blood."
— Aileen Jacobson, New York Newsday

"The Family of Mann, Theresa Rebeck's new comedy at the Second Stage Theatre, satirizes the morals and manners of the people who manufacture television situation comedies. Ms. Rebeck speaks with the authority of the observant outsider that has been on the inside. She's also unusual among today's comedy writers in that she can come up with very funny lines that erupt naturally from the situations."
— Vincent Canby, The New York Times

"The smartest, the smoothest, the best written, most provocative play to be presented in New York in a long time. The Family of Mann takes off on California show business in a way that permanently outdates movieland satires from Once in a Lifetime to Four Dogs and a Bone. Simply first class.">
— Martin Gottfried, The New York Law Journal

"The only play of lasting value on Broadway!."
— Time Magazine