‘Cult of Love’: Complete cast announced

DAVID RASCHE and MARE WINNINGHAM

Complete the Cast of

LESLYE HEADLAND’S

CULT OF LOVE

Directed by TRIP CULLMAN

Joining the Previously Announced

Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Barbie Ferreira,

Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell, Zachary Quinto,

Christopher Sears, and Shailene Woodley

 New York Premiere Production

Begins Previews on Broadway November 20^th

Opening Night December 12^th

At Second Stage’s Helen Hayes Theater

NEW YORK – Second Stage Theater (Bennett Leak, Interim Artistic Director; Lisa Lawer Post, Executive Director) has announced that David Rasche (Succession, VEEP) and Emmy Award winner, Academy Award and Tony Award nominee Mare Winningham (Girl from the North Country, Georgia) will play Bill and Ginny Dahl, the parents of the fractured family at the heart of Emmy Award nominee Leslye Headland’s CULT OF LOVE. Directed by Obie Award-winner Trip Cullman, the New York Premiere production of CULT OF LOVE will begin previews on November 20^th and will officially open on December 12^th at the Helen Hayes Theater (240 West 44^th street).  This production will mark Ms. Headland’s Broadway debut.

‘CULT OF LOVE’: Mare Winningham.

Mr. Rasche and Ms. Winningham join the previously announced Molly Bernard (TV Land’s “Younger”), Roberta Colindrez (Broadway’s Fun Home, 2ST’s Mala Hierba), Barbie Ferreira (HBO’s “Euphoria”), Rebecca Henderson (“Star Wars: Acolyte”), Christopher Lowell (Netflix’s “Glow,” Hulu’s “How I Met Your Father”), Zachary Quinto (Broadway’s The Boys in the Band and The Glass Menagerie), Christopher Sears (Off-Broadway’s The Harvest and Gently Down the Stream), and Emmy, BAFTA, and Golden Globe Award nominee Shailene Woodley (The Divergent Series, Ferrari, HBO’s “Big Little Lies”), who will be making her Broadway debut. They will also be joined by understudies Peter Bradbury, Billy Cohen, Vero Maynez, Rachel Prather, and Luisa Sermol.

Single tickets are currently on sale at 2ST.com.

‘CULT OF LOVE’: David Rasche.

DAVID RASCHE most recently portrayed the bigwig media executive, Karl Muller, on HBO’s multi-award-winning series, “Succession.”  Up next, Rasche will be seen in FX’s “Dying for Sex”” opposite Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. His Broadway credits include: David Mamet’s Speed-The-Plow, Lunch Hour, with Gilda Radner and directed by Mike Nichols, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Shadow Box. Off-Broadway credits include: Little Miss Sunshine, directed and written by James Lapine, Chekhov’s The Seagull at CSC for which he earned the Richard Seff Award from Actors’ Equity, David Mamet’s Edmond (Atlantic Theater Company), and Last Dance by Marsha Norman, with JoBeth Williams (Manhattan Theater Club).

He began his career on the mainstage at Chicago’s famed cabaret theater, The Second City.

His TV credits include recurring roles on two HBO series: “VEEP” with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and “Bored to Death” with Ted Danson, and the title role in the series, “Sledge Hammer!” His films include: About My Father (with Robert DeNiro and Sebastian Maniscalco), In The Loop (Armando Iannucci), Burn after Reading (Coen Brothers), Men In Black III (Sonnenfeld), Flags of Our Fathers (Clint Eastwood), United 93 (Paul Greengrass), The Sentinel (with Michael Douglas and Kim Basinger), An Innocent Man (Peter Yates), The Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood (with Sandra Bullock), That Old Feeling (with Bette Midler, dir. Carl Reiner), Delirious (with John Candy), and Manhattan (Woody Allen).

MARE WINNINGHAM’s career has encompassed a range of performances on stage, television, and film. She won her first Emmy Award for her role in “Amber Waves.” She went on to earn her second Emmy Award for her work in John Frankenheimer’s “George Wallace,” as well as Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations. She has received an additional six Emmy nominations for her performances in “The Boys Next Door,” “Hatfields & McCoys,” and “Mildred Pierce.” She was seen on television most recently in the limited series “Dopesick,” earning her sixth Emmy nomination. Her other high profile television movie and series credits include “The Thornbirds,” “ER,” “The Affair,” “The Outsider,” and multiple seasons of “American Horror Story.” Her range of film credits include performances in St. Elmo’s Fire, Wyatt Earp, The War, Turner & Hooch, Philomena, Dark Waters, All MY Puny Sorrows, and most recently, Rob Peace. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in Miracle Mile, and for her work in Georgia, she received an Academy Award nomination, SAG nomination, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Her off-Broadway appearances include 10 Million Miles, for which she received a Lucille Lortel Award, in addition to Drama Desk and Drama League nominations, and Tribes, for which she received a Lucille Lortel nomination. She made her Broadway debut in a revival of Picnic and was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in Casa Valentina. For creating her role in the original off-Broadway production of the Bob Dylan musical Girl From the North Country she received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination; when the show subsequently transferred to Broadway, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance. Winningham is also a recording artist and has appeared in concert performance venues in New York, where she resides.

ABOUT CULT OF LOVE

It’s the holiday season for the Dahl family. The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. Will the love the Dahls have for each other be enough to get them through, or will this be their last Christmas together?

Emmy® Award nominee Leslye Headland (Bachelorette, “Star Wars: The Acolyte,” “Russian Doll”) has written an equally heartwarming and heartbreaking new play about the things that bind families together… or tear them apart.

CULT OF LOVE will feature scenic design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by Sophia Choi, lighting design by Heather Gilbert, and sound design by Darron L West. The Music Supervisor is Jacinth Greywoode.  Casting is by Jim Carnahan, CSA and Liz Fraser, CSA.

CULT OF LOVE had its World Premiere at IAMA in January 2018.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Playwright LESLYE HEADLAND is an Emmy®-nominated writer, producer and director. She returns to Second Stage Theater, which produced her play, Bachelorette, in its Uptown Series, and her play, The Layover, Off-Broadway at the Kiser Theater. Headland began her career writing and directing the “Seven Deadly Plays” series for IAMA Theatre Company. Most recently, Headland served as writer, director, showrunner and executive producer of “Star Wars: The Acolyte” for the Disney+ streaming platform. The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-Jae and Manny Jacinto. Headland currently has a multi-year, overall deal with Fox 21 Television Studios to create, develop and direct series for network, cable and streaming platforms. Headland served as writer, director, showrunner and executive producer of Netflix’s acclaimed series “Russian Doll” (co-created by Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler), which was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and nine Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Headland made her directorial film debut with Bachelorette, which she adapted from her critically acclaimed play, starring Kirsten Dunst and Rebel Wilson. Bachelorette is currently streaming on HBOMax. She wrote and directed Sleeping With Other People, starring Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie. Sleeping with Other People is currently streaming on Hulu. Both films premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and 2015 respectively. Additional TV writing/directing credits include: “Single Drunk Female” (Freeform), “Terriers”(FX), “Blunt Talk” (Starz), “Smilf” and “Black Monday” (both Showtime), and “Heathers” (Paramount), as well as pilots for HBO, ABC and NBC.

TRIP CULLMAN (Director). Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, Choir Boy, Lobby Hero (Tony nom., Best Revival), Six Degrees of Separation (Tony nom., Best Revival), Significant Other. Select Off Broadway: I Can Get It For You Wholesale (Best Revival, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle) (CSC); The Lonely Few, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow, YEN, Punk Rock (Obie Award), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gynecologic Oncology Unit At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Of New York City (MCC); Days Of Rage, The Layover, The Substance of Fire, Lonely I’m Not, Bachelorette, Some Men, Swimming In The Shallows (Second Stage); Unknown Soldier, The Pain Of My Belligerence, Assistance, A Small Fire (Drama Desk nomination, Best Direction), The Drunken City  (Playwrights Horizons); Choir Boy (MTC); Murder Ballad (MTC and Union Square Theatre); The Mother, I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard (Atlantic); Roulette (EST); The Hallway Trilogy: Nursing (Rattlestick); The Last Sunday In June (Rattlestick and Century Center); Dog Sees God (Century Center); US Drag (stageFARM); and several productions with The Play Company. London: The Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, PA (Tricycle). Select regional: Berkeley Rep, Geffen, Arena, Alliance, Old Globe, La Jolla, South Coast Rep, Bay Street, McCarter, Williamstown Theater Festival.

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Season Subscriptions are now available, 5-Play packages are $425 and 3-play packages are $295. For those 30 years of age and younger, Flip the Script 5 Play packages are $150. To purchase a subscription, please visit 2ST.com or call 212-246-4422. Subscribers receive early access to a winter festival of plays and readings by new American writers. 

Second Stage Theater’s programs are made possible by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This production is supported by a grant from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

This season is sponsored by the Howard Gilman Foundation.

ABOUT SECOND STAGE THEATER 

Second Stage Theater is a non-profit theater company founded in 1979 by Robyn Goodman and Carole Rothman that produces work by living American writers both on and off Broadway. The current season is being programmed by Interim Artistic Director Bennett Leak. Incoming Artistic Director Evan Cabnet will begin programming in fall 2025.

The company’s more than 200 citations include the 2024 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for Branden Jacobs Jenkins’ Appropriate, as well as Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for Sarah Paulson and Best Lighting Design of a Play for Jane Cox; 2022 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for Take Me Out, as well as Best Featured Actor in a Play for Jesse Tyler Ferguson; six 2017 Tony Awards for Dear Evan Hansen (Best Musical; Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Ben Platt; Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Rachel Bay Jones; Best Book of a Musical; Best Original Score; Best Orchestrations); the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley, Next to Normal), Best Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal), and Best Orchestrations (Tom Kitt and Michael Starobin, Next to Normal); the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed); the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, …Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, …Spelling Bee); the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses); the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 29 Obie Awards, 11 Outer Critics Circle Awards, four Clarence Derwent Awards, 20 Drama Desk Awards, 11 Theatre World Awards, one Dorothy Louden Award, 20 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards.

 For more information, please visit www.2ST.com or follow Second Stage on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok: @2stnyc