Paula Plum to Star in Lyric Stage’s 33 Variations

The Lyric Stage has announced casting for Moisés Kaufman’s Tony Award-nominated play 33 Variations. Spiro Veloudos will direct the production, which is slated to run January 4-February 2.

This drama focuses on Dr. Katherine Brandt, a famous musicologist researching Beethoven and his “Diabelli Variations” as she struggles with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) — a parallel with the master composer’s own battles to create his own musical compositions as his health deteriorates.

The cast will star Paula Plum as Dr Brandt alongside James Andreassi, Kelby T. Akin, Maureen Keiller, Will McGarrahan, Dakota Shepard, and Victor L. Shopov, as well as pianist Catherine Stornetta.

The creative team will include Cristina Todesco (scenic design), Charles Schoonmaker (costume design), Karen Perlow (lighting design), Brendan Doyle (sound design), and Shawn Boyle (projection design).

Kaufman’s other plays include The Laramie Project and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. He is currently represented as a director on Broadway with The Heiress.

Plum has won numerous awards for her stage work in Boston — where she has appeared at The Lyric, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, SpeakEasy Stage, and American Repertory Theatre — including the 1995 and 2007 Eliot Norton Award for Best Actress and the 2004 Eliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence. She has also appeared in ABC Lifetime’s The March Sisters at Christmas and will be featured in the upcoming pilot Terminales.