Weekend Spotlight: Alec Baldwin, Sam Underwood Reunite at Guild Hall

Alec Baldwin and Sam Underwood will reunite Friday night at to present a staged reading of  a play by British playwright Peter Shaffer.

The two actors graced the stage at Guild Hall last summer to perform Equus, another of Shaffer's works. That show received favorable critical reviews, and this show is expected to draw similar acclaim, according to Barbara Jo Howard, Guild Hall's Public Relations Director.

"For Alec this is [reading] is especially interesting because it hasn't been done here in the United States," Howard said. "But it has been done in London to rave reviews."

The event is sold out, with a significant number of tickets purchased weeks in advance, Howard said. Purchasing tickets weeks ahead is a trend that has been dormant for at least two years, she said.

Baldwin and Underwood team up with a notable cast of veterans of the stage and screen. Actor and director Jerry Adler, stage actress and musician Melisa Errico, and film and television actor Harris Yulin will perform alongside Baldwin and Underwood in a play that critics have regarded as Shaffer's best work since Amadeus. Tony Walton, who spearheaded the project with Guild Hall Artistic Director Josh Gladstone, will direct this reading.

The Gift of the Gorgon is a drama centered around a son's quest to discover the past of a father he never knew. Academic Philip Damson wishes to write a biography of his playwright father Edward, and along the way relives his stepmother's relationship with her passionate, narcissistic and volatile husband. The story of the playwright's rise to fame and tragic estrangement conjures the Greek deity myth of Athena, Perseus, and the slain Gorgon monster.

The reading will begin at 8 p.m. at Guild Hall, located on Main Street in East Hampton.