Alice Ripley to Star in Paula Vogel\'s \'Civil War Christmas\'

By ERIK PIEPENBURG

The Tony Award-winning actress Alice Ripley (“Next to Normal”) will play Mary Todd Lincoln in the coming New York Theater Workshop production of Paula Vogel's “Civil War Christmas,” the theater announced on Thursday.

Set on Christmas Eve in 1864, the show features reflections on the Civil War as narrated by several historical and fictional characters, including President Lincoln, slaves, Union and Confederate soldiers, and Walt Whitman, with every actor playing at least two roles. Holiday songs of the period, including Christmas carols, hymns and spirituals, are woven into the story. Tina Landau, who directed the show's premiere in 2008 at the Long Wharf Theater, will reprise her duties.

Other cast members include Bob Stillman (“Dirty Blonde”), who will play Abraham Lincoln, and the actors De'adre Aziza, Sumaya Bouhbal, K. Todd Freeman, Chris Henry, Rachel Spencer Hewitt, Antwayn Hopper, Jonathan-David, K aren Kandel and Sean Allan Krill. Performances are set to begin Nov. 13 and continue through Dec. 30, with opening night scheduled for Dec. 4.

Ms. Vogel is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “How I Learned to Drive” and many other plays, including “The Baltimore Waltz” and “The Long Christmas Ride Home.”