‘The Velocity of Autumn’ Hits Broadway with Estelle Parsons, Stephen Spinella April 1

Eric Coble’s family drama The Velocity of Autumn will play a limited engagement at Broadway’s Booth Theatre. The production will star Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons and two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella. Preview performances are scheduled to begin April 1, 2014, with an official opening date of April 21, 2014.

Parsons’ stage resume includes The Seven Descents of Myrtle, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Miss Margarida’s Way, and Morning at Seven. Most recently, she appeared in the Broadway production of Nice Work If You Can Get It. Spinella has performed in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Angels in America: Perestroika, A View From the Bridge, and Spring Awakening.

The Velocity of Autumn centers around 79 year old artist Alexandra who is in a showdown with her family over where she will spend the remaining years of her life. Press notes for the show state, “In Alexandra’s corner are her wit, her volcanic passion and the fact that she’s barricaded herself in her Brooklyn brownstone with enough Molotov cocktails to take out the block. But her children have their own secret weapon: estranged son Chris who returns after 20 years, crawls through Alexandra’s second floor window, and becomes the family’s unlikely mediator. No sooner are the words ‘Hi, Mom’ uttered than the emotional bombs start detonating. The Velocity of Autumn is a wickedly funny and wonderfully touching discovery of the fragility and ferocity of life.”

The production is directed by Molly Smith and produced by Larry Kaye & HOP Theatricals; Van Dean & The Broadway Consortium; Joan Raffe & Jhett Tolention; and Rob Hinderliter & Dominick LaRuffa, Jr., in association with KIRN Productions and Jonathan Demar. It features scenic design by Eugene Lee, costume design by Linda Cho, lighting design by Rui Rita, sound design by Darron L. West, wig design by Paul Huntley, and casting by Geoff Josselson.

Tickets for the show will be available for pre-sale beginning December 16 and will go on sale to the general public December 20.