CHICAGO PrideArts today announced the full cast for its upcoming reading of Paul Rudnick's comedy JEFFREY. David Belew, founder and former artistic director of Eclectic Full Contact Theatre, will direct a cast that will include Juwon Tyrell Perry [Updated May 12 for a cast change] in the title role of a gay man living in New York who decides to stop his sex-hungry ways and become celibate. His intentions are challenged, however, when he ends up falling in love with the perfect guy, Steve (to be played by Magdiel Carmona), at the gym. But not only has Jeffrey just pledged celibacy, Steve is HIV-positive. Jeffrey seeks aid from his older friend Sterling (Kalani Whitford), and he ends up realizing the importance of love. Carmona and Whitford will play multiple roles, as will the other cast members Sean Findley, Vinnie Linares, Ronnie Lyall, Julie Partyka, and Juwon Tyrell Perry. Eileen Scandiffio will be the stage manager. JEFFREY will be performed live, one night only, on Tuesday, May 18, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10.00 and available at pridearts.org .
Stephen Holden, wrote in The New York Times that Jeffrey was "Just the sort of play Oscar Wilde might have written had he lived in 1990s Manhattan." The comedy won an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and the John Gassner Playwrighting Award. It was adapted as a feature film with Steven Weber and Patrick Stewart leading an all-star cast.