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Heather Graham to Star Off-Broadway in Neil LaBute's 'The Money Shot'

Heather Graham, the screen star known for "Californication," Boogie Nights, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and "Twin Peaks," will star in MCC Theater's Off-Broadway world premiere production of The Money Shot by Neil LaBute at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Director Terry Kinney, a frequent collaborator with LaBute, will helm the play, which begins performances Sept. 4 prior to a Sept. 22 opening at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. The run is scheduled through Oct. 12.

Frederick Weller (Mothers and Sons, Reasons to Be Happy) co-stars in the story which, according to the MCC Theater website, concerns two "glamorous movie stars with one thing in common: desperation. It's been years since either one's had a hit, but the latest movie by a hot shot European director could change that."

So Graham may not be playing against type, but her mere appearance in live theater is unusual. She made her Off-Broadway debut in a 2003 production of Craig Wright's Recent Tragic Events, another play that takes a look at the acting profession itself. But Graham's career has been so screen-focussed her Wikipedia page doesn't mention stage work at all.

Neil LaBute by contrast has long worked in both worlds. He broke into public consciousness with the 1997 film adaptation of In the Company of Men, his controversial play about cruelty. The Shape of Things, whose London premiere and film adaptation both starred Paul Rudd and Rachel Weisz, had a similar theme of manipulation. LaBute's reasons to be pretty went from Off-Broadway (the Lucille Lortel Theatre again) to Broadway in 2009, and received three Tony Award nominations.

The cast of The Money Shot also features Gia Crovatin (reasons to be pretty) and Golden Globe-nominee Callie Thorne ("Necessary Roughness," The Last Days of Judas Iscariot).

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