The substance of Fire by Jon Robin Baitz

Second Stage Theatre have added a production of Jon Robin Baitz's The substance of Fire, directed by Trip Cullman, to the company's current 35th Anniversary season.

The substance of Fire will open at Second Stage on 12 May 2014, following previews from 22 Apr 2014, and close on 08 Jun 2014.

Casting and the full creative team will be announced at a later date.

The substance of Fire: Isaac Geldhart, the volatile and brilliant patriarch of his family publishing house, is stubbornly holding on to his place at the head of the company while his three children try to convince him to publish a desperately needed best-seller. Faced with a changing literary landscape and potential takeover of the company, the Geldhart children must either come to terms with their father and band together or break apart and forfeit the legacy he risked everything to build.

Jon Robin Baitz made his New York playwriting debut at Second Stage Theatre in 1988 with his play, 'The Film Society,' starring Nathan Lane, Laila Robins, and Daniel Gerroll. His many plays include 'Three Hotels,' 'A Fair Country,' 'Mizlansy/Zilinsky or "Schmucks,"' 'Ten Unknowns' and T'he Paris Letter. Baitz's Pulitzer Prize and Tony nominated play 'Other Desert Cities' is soon to have its Uk premiere at London's Old Vic Theatre.

Director Trip Cullman returns to Second Stage Theatre where he has productions of 'Bachelorette,' 'Lonely, I'm Not,' 'Swimming in the Shallows' and 'Some Men.'

Second Stage theatre's Founder and Artistic Director Carole Rothman said,

One of the highlights of the past 35 years has been the opportunity to introduce promising playwrights to New York audiences and I'm extremely proud to have given Robbie his first New York production back in 1988 with 'The Film Society.' It is a thrill to welcome him back to Second Stage for this 35th Anniversary season and to re-mount one of his most powerful plays in New York for the first time in over two decades."

The original production of The substance of Fire premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 1991 in a production directed by Daniel Sullivan and starring Ron Rifkin and Sarah Jessica Parker. It subsequently transferred to Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theatre and was also made into a 1996 film.