Cherry Jones In Doubt

Tony Award-winning Best Actress Cherry Jones stars in the National Touring production of the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley. The production, directed by Tony Award-winner Doug Hughes, will make its Chicago premiere at the LaSalle Bank Theatre (18 W. Monroe St.) for a limited three-week engagement beginning January 9 – 28, 2007.

Cherry Jones will play Sister Aloysius, the role she originated in 2005. Along with the Tony Award, this role has earned her a Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and an Obie.

The producers commented, “We’re delighted to bring Mr. Shanley’s thought-provoking and riveting play to the rest of the country, and we’re thrilled that more audiences will get the chance to see Cherry recreate her indelible performance as Sister Aloysius.”

Set against the backdrop of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, Doubt is the story of a strong-minded woman faced with a difficult decision.  Should she voice concerns about one of her male colleagues…even if she’s not entirely certain of the truth? 

A veteran stage actress, Cherry Jones’s Broadway credits include The Lincoln Center Theater production of The Heiress, Imaginary Friends, Major Barbara, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Our Country’s Good, Angels in America and most recently Faith Healer.  She has also been seen in the regional and Off-Broadway productions of Flesh & Blood, Pride’s Crossing, The Baltimore Waltz, Night of the Iguana, The Good Person Setzuan, and 25 productions as a company member of the American Repertory Theatre, including Twelfth Night, The Three Sisters, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Lysistrata.   

Cherry Jones also has extensive film credits including Oceans 12, The Village, Signs, Swimmers, Cradle Will Rock, Erin Brockovich, The Horse Whisperer, The Perfect Storm, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and the Lifetime Television movie “What Makes a Family.”

Throughout her accomplished career, Cherry Jones has been awarded two Tony Awards, two Obies, two Joseph Jeffersons, three Drama Desks, three Outer Critics Awards, the Sidney Kingsley, two Lucille Lortel Awards, the Elliott Norton and the Drama League Award.

Chris McGarry (Father Flynn), Lisa Joyce (Sister James) and Caroline Stefanie Clay (Mrs. Muller) round out the cast.

John Patrick Shanley (Playwright) received the 2005 Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Doubt. He is from the Bronx and was thrown out of St. Helena's kindergarten. He was banned from St. Anthony's hot lunch program for life. He was expelled from Cardinal Spellman High School. He was placed on academic probation by New York University and instructed to appear before a tribunal if he wished to return. When asked why he had been treated in this way by all these institutions, he burst into tears and said he had no idea. Then he went in the United States Marine Corps. He did fine. He's still doing okay.

Doug Hughes (Director) most recently won the Tony Award for directing Doubt. He is the resident director at MCC Theater, where he has directed Last Easter, Scattergood, Frozen, and The Grey Zone, which garnered Obie Award and Drama Desk nomination, co-produced Wit and received the first-ever MCC Award. Recent work in New York includes Engaged; Flesh and Blood, which received the Callaway Award, The Beard of Avon and A Question of Mercy, all at NYTW; Othello with Keith David and Liev Schreiber at the Public; John Guare's Lake Hollywood at Signature; and An Experiment with an Air Pump for MTC. He has directed five productions for the Guthrie, where he also served as director of artistic planning. Other regional: Long Wharf; Seattle Rep; LaJolla Playhouse; the Shakespeare Theatre in D.C.; London's Bush Theatre; Yale Rep; and the McCarter. For his work on Frozen, Hughes received Tony, Lortel and OCC nominations.

Doubt will play the LaSalle Bank Theatre (18 W. Monroe) January 9 – 28, 2007.  Tickets range in price from $20 - $72 and are available at Broadway In Chicago Box Offices (18 W. Monroe, 24 W. Randolph St. and 151 W. Randolph St.), through the Broadway In Chicago Ticket Line at (312) 902-1400, at all Ticketmaster ticket centers (including all Carson Pirie Scott stores, Tower Records, Hot Tix, select Coconuts and fye stores) or online at ticketmaster.com.