David Hyde Pierce will close the 2026 Script in Hand season at Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut, leading a one-night reading of Old Man Trouble, a new comedy by David Wexler and Michael Cristofer, on Monday, November 30, at 7 p.m.
Mark Shanahan, the Playhouse's artistic director and the curator of the series, directs. The rest of the cast has not been named yet; the theater says it will announce the full company soon.
The play takes place on New Year's Eve in a well-appointed Manhattan townhouse. Hyde Pierce plays Robert Teitel, a wealthy real estate developer who is tired of his marriage, his grown children, his fortune and the hundred guests downstairs working through his champagne. He shuts himself in his study in search of some quiet, but as midnight approaches the room fills up with uninvited visitors, family emergencies, romantic entanglements and secrets that will not stay hidden.
“Old Man Trouble is a good old-fashioned romp, full of sly wit, wonderfully eccentric characters, and plenty of heart,” said Shanahan, who called Hyde Pierce “truly one of America's finest comic actors.”
Hyde Pierce won a Tony Award for Curtains and was nominated for Hello, Dolly! and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. His other Broadway credits include Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Spamalot, La Bête, The Heidi Chronicles and Beyond Therapy, and Off-Broadway he has appeared in Sondheim's Here We Are, A Life and The Landing. On television his work includes Frasier and Julia. Next February he is set to star as Charlie Brown in the Encores! production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
Tickets for the reading are $35. It runs about two hours, including one intermission, and is recommended for ages 13 and up. In keeping with the series format, the actors perform from scripts, with no scenery or costumes. Westport Country Playhouse is at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, in Westport, and the box office can be reached at 203-227-4177 or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529.
Script in Hand marked its 100th reading earlier this month, when Tom Hanks joined Wendie Malick and Tony Shalhoub on the same stage. The 2027 season of eight readings begins on January 11, and subscriptions and single tickets are already on sale. On the Playhouse's main stage, Ken Ludwig's Pride and Prejudice, Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberley plays through Saturday, November 7.
For more information, visit the Westport Country Playhouse website.
