'A Naked Girl on the Appian Way' will star Jill Clayburgh

The Roundabout Theatre Company have announced that Jill Clayburgh will star in the New York premiere of Richard Greenberg�s new comedy A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, directed by Doug Hughes at the American Airlines Theatre.

The comedy opens on the 6 Oct 2005, following previews from the 9 Sep. This is a limited engagement through November 27th, 2005.

Synopsis: Bess is a successful cookbook author and her husband Jeffrey is a distracted genius whose lives are upended when their two children return from a year of European travel and reveal surprising news that stretches the family beyond their breaking point.

Jill Clayburgh (Bess Lapin) returns to Broadway after a 20-year absence having last performed in 'Design For Living' in 1985. She was nominated for two Academy Awards for her work in 'Starting Over' and 'An Unmarried Woman'. Additional Broadway credits include 'Design for Living', 'Jumpers', 'Pippin', 'The Rothschilds' and 'The Sudden and Accidental Re-Education of Horse Johnson'. Following the limited engagement of A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, she will play 'Mrs. Banks' in the upcoming Broadway revival of 'Barefoot in the Park', details of which are still to be announced.

Additional cast members and the design team will be announced shortly..

A Naked Girl on the Appian Way is Richard Greenberg�s third play at the Roundabout Theatre Company. His previous plays include 'Hurrah At Last' (1999) and 'The Dazzle' (2002), which received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play and a Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Play. Richard Greenberg also earned the 2003 Best Play Tony Award for 'Take Me Out and earned two Pulitzer Prize nominations for his play 'Take Me Out' (2003) and 'Three Days of Rain' (1998).

Doug Hughes returns to the Roundabout Theatre Company where he directed Jon Robin Baitz�s The Paris Letter and Stephen Belber�s 'McReele', both at the Laura Pels Theatre. He will also direct Roundabout�s new production of 'A Touch of the Poet' starring Gabriel Byrne at Studio 54 beginning November 11th, 2005. He earned the 2005 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Direction of John Patrick Shanley�s Doubt. He also earned the 2004 Tony, Outer Critics Circle & Lucille Lortel nominations for his direction of Bryony Lavery�s 'Frozen'.

Tickets for this event will go on sale in Aug.

A Naked Girl on the Appian Way was commissioned and first produced by South Coast Repertory.