Bob Odenkirk, Molly Ringwald, T.R. Knight, and More Join “Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been”

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T.R. Knight, Norbert Leo Butz, and Harry Lennix also join the production's next guest star lineup.

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Dates have been set for the third cycle of guest stars joining the cast of Eric Bentley ’s 1972 docudrama, ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN this summer at New York City Center Stage (i) , directed by Tony winner Anna D. Shapiro .

Joining the cast from July 14 through August 2 will be two-time Tony Award-winner Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Catch Me If You Can), Emmy nominee T.R. Knight (Stranger Things: The First Shadow, “Grey’s Anatomy”), Tony nominee Harry Lennix (Purpose, “The Blacklist”), Emmy winner and Golden Globe nominee Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul,” Glengarry Glen Ross), and Golden Globe nominee and Drama Desk Award-winner Molly Ringwald (“Yellowjackets,” One Night Only).

Guest starring through July 12 will be previously announced Scott Adsit (“30 Rock”), Billy Eugene Jones (Purlie Victorious, Fat Ham), Sally Murphy (August: Osage County), Ben Rappaport (Good Night Oscar), and Thomas Sadoski (“The Newsroom”).

Six veteran actors are performing for the duration of the limited 15 week run through September 11: Three-time Tony Award nominee Brooks Ashmanskas (Smash, The Prom), Jason Babinsky (Network, Billy Elliot), Tony nominee Steven Boyer ([Hand to God]), Emmy and Grammy winnerAdam Kantor (The Band’s Visit), Drama Desk Award winner Frederick Weller (In Plain Sight), and Grammy winner, Emmy and Academy Award nominee Michael McKean (This is Spinal Tap, “Better Call Saul”). Melvin Abston , Noah Pyzik , and Bill Timoney have been cast as understudies.

Additional casting for the final six weeks of the run will include Santino Fontana , Steven Pasquale , and more to be announced.

A rotating all-star cast comes together for a timely and important revival of Eric Bentley 's landmark play. This electrifying docudrama drops you into the tense world of the 1940s House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings, where fame offered no protection and political pressure could end a career.

Using only the original transcripts, the play features the words of artists like Arthur Miller , Jerome Robbins , Paul Robeson , Elia Kazan , Lillian Hellman , Abe Burrows , and Lionel Stander as they faced impossible choices: defend their integrity, protect their careers, or betray their peers. And yet the probing, chilling questions posed by the committee are as powerful as the testimonies themselves, revealing a climate of intimidation and moral conflict that resonates far beyond its time.

The design team for this production includes Andrew Boyce (Scenic Designer), Johanna Pan ( Costume Designer ), Brittany Hartman (Hair & Wig Designer), Donald Holder (Lighting Designer), Milbo Music (Sound Designer), and Brittany Bland (Projections Designer). Casting by The Telsey Office .

Created by one of the most influential theater intellectuals of the 20th century, Eric Bentley , ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN embodies his career-long drive to challenge audiences with the ideas behind the drama. Honored with a 2006 Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, Bentley turned history into riveting theater. By presenting the words exactly as spoken, Bentley transformed archival material into a dramatic confrontation between artists and government power.

Throughout his career, Bentley wrote extensively on drama and performance with influential works including the landmark 1946 book The Playwright as Thinker, which helped define modern theater criticism.

Among the other figures portrayed in ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN are film actor Larry Parks ; director Sam G. Wood; filmmakers and Hollywood Ten members Edward Dmytryk and Ring Lardner , Jr.; screen star Sterling Hayden ; acclaimed stage and screen actor José Ferrer; screenwriter Martin Berkeley ; Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter Robert Rossen ; labor organizer Tony Kraber ; film director Frank Tuttle ; actor and radio performer Nicholas Bela; stage and screen actor Elliott Sullivan ; and character actor Marc Lawrence . Drawn from across film, theatre, radio, and music, these artists represent a cross-section of mid-century American entertainment at the height of the Hollywood studio era.

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Performances have begun for the limited 15-week engagement of Eric Bentley’s 1972 docudrama, ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN, directed by Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro at New York City Center Stage I. Check out photos here!

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Dates-Set-For-Bob-Odenkirk-Molly-Ringwald-and-More-in-ARE-YOU-NOW-OR-HAVE-YOU-EVER-BEEN-20260622)._