American actor Jason Butler Harner and US TV regular Jason O’Mara are to lead the cast of Lanford Wilson’s Serenading Louie at the Donmar Warehouse from 11 February.
They are joined in this portrait of two suburban American couples by Charlotte Emmerson and Geraldine Somerville.
Wilson’s play centres on Carl and Alex, friends since college, who are struggling to deal with the harsh realities of adulthood as they enter their 30s. Dillillusioned by work and struggling to keep their marriages alive, they are desperately trying to make sense of it all.
New Yorker Butler Harner, who makes his West End debut as Alex, has stage credits in the US including Tom Stoppard’s award-winning The Coast Of Utopia as well as classics The Glass Menagerie, The Cherry Orchard and Hedda Gabler. His screen work includes the films Changeling, The Good Shepherd and The Taking Of Pelham 123.
US-based Irish actor O’Mara is known for playing Sam Tyler in the US version of hit British television series Life On Mars as well as TV appearances in Grey’s Anatomy, Criminals Minds and Band Of Brothers. He has previously been seen on the London stage in The Jew Of Malta at the Almeida theatre and Popcorn at the Apollo theatre.
Emmerson’s London stage credits include On The Rocks at the Hampstead theatre and Therese Raquin and The Coast Of Utopia at the National Theatre, while Somerville has also worked with the National Theatre on productions including Power, Remember This and Blue Remembered Hills. Somerville is also well-known for her screen work which includes crime series Cracker, the film Gosford Park and the Harry Potter series.
Simon Curtis’s production of Serenading Louie opens at the Donmar Warehouse on 16 February after previews from 11 February and plays until 27 March.
CB