Katie Holmes has not let one minute pass since her quickie divorce. She’s already lined up a Broadway play. Jack O’Brien is set to direct her in “Dead Accounts,” a new play by Theresa Rebeck. Jeffrey Finn is producing. The play consists of five characters. Katie will play the sister of the main character, a wealthy guy who’s left his wife. Rebeck was the creator of the TV show “Smash.” She was given the axe this spring as show runner. Finn produced her last play, “Seminar,” starring Alan Rickman as a reimagined version of famed writing teacher and editor Gordon Lish. It’s unclear who these characters will be based on.
Finn told me on the phone tonight that he couldn’t say how long this had been in the works, or even exactly when it will open. “Sometime in the fall,” he said. The fall runs from September 21st- December 21st. Anyway, “Dead Accounts” had its world premiere last winter in Rebeck’s hometown of Cincinnatti, where it got mixed to poor reviews. Hopefully she’s had time to work on it. One reviewer called it ” shallow and emotionally flat. The characters were uninteresting and very stereotypical. If you remove all the Cincinnati references (which ALWAYS generate a laugh) there are few moments in the show that actually speak to Cincinnati.”
The reviewer at cincinnati.com, a Gannett publication, wrote that the first act “has the bones of a great sitcom.” That was praise, by the way.
I’ve never been to Cincinnati so I can’t judge. But the father, whom Katie’s character takes care of, suffers from kidney stones. I can relate to that. Katie, give him a lot of Oxycodone.
For Holmes, this is swell. This is what she told me she wanted to back in April 2005. Along the way, she did appear in a revival of “All My Sons.” Tom Cruise hovered over that production like a storm cloud. This time, she’s entirely on her own. I’m assuming Katie’s manager John Carrabino, whom she left in 2005 but returned to around 2009, cut the deal. If he calls back, I’ll let you know.
