Manhattan Theatre Club is pleased to announce that Mary Catherine Garrison, Elizabeth Marvel, Martha Plimpton and Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei will star in the upcoming Broadway premiere of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls at the Biltmore Theatre (261 West 47th Street). 

The play will be directed by James Macdonald (A Number). Additional casting for the production will be announced at a later date.

Top Girls will begin previews at MTC’s Biltmore Theatre (261 West 47th Street) on Tuesday, April 15 and will open on Wednesday, May 7, 2008.

“Top Girls marks the Broadway debut of a Caryl Churchill masterpiece. At the Top Girls Employment Agency in London in the early 1980s, Marlene has just been appointed head of the firm.  But as this ambitious career woman celebrates her achievements, can we applaud her values?” ask press notes.

“This bold and ingenious work from the singularly talented author of Far Away and Cloud Nine offers one of the theatre’s most honest portraits of what it means to be a woman in the modern world.”

Tomei is currently starring in the 5-mini-play series Oh, The Humanity off-Broadway at The Flea.  Plimpton is also currently treading the boards, starring in the Lincoln Center production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.

Single ticket and listings information for Top Girls will be announced in the coming weeks.

The awards season has officially begun with this morning’s announcement of the nominees for the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards.  Marisa was nominated for best supporting actress.  She was the only nomination for Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead but her costar Philip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for his performance in The Savages.

In other awards news…  The Gotham awards are going to be held tonight in N.Y.C.  and Marisa is on the list of attendees.  I will post photos (if any) as they appear.  Marisa and the rest of the cast of Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead have been nominated for best ensemble cast.

One last little tidbit.  Marisa tops Mr. Skin’s list of the top 20 movie nude scenes of 2007.

from winnipegsun.com

Actress Marisa Tomei, who appears “starkers” in bed with co-star Phillip Seymour Hoffman at the very beginning of the critically acclaimed Sidney Lumet film Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, had a protective guiding hand on set.

“The great thing about Sidney was he’s so protective and nurturing, and he has such a clear vision and he loves actors. He’s not scared of actors,” Tomei, 42, said in September during the Toronto film festival.

“A lot of times directors are scared of actors — they like the technical but maybe not the emotional — and he just loves being with actors. So you already feel welcome and in a very safe environment.”

The other thing is that the Brooklyn-born actress, who won an Oscar for 1992’s My Cousin Vinny and was nominated again for 2001’s In The Bedroom, is clearly a pro.

Believe it or not she was also shooting the slapstick comedy Wild Hogs at the same time as Devil, a grim heist-gone-wrong melodrama.

“That was actually really difficult,” said Tomei, who has since shot War Inc. with John Cusack. “It wasn’t that they were so opposite. It was the travelling back and forth, and then kind of jumping back in. That was a really big challenge.”

Tomei is currently starring in the off-Broadway production of Oh, The Humanity and Other Good Intentions, which will have its premiere next Thursday night in New York.