Eliza Dushku

Off-Broadway’s Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead shut down its run at the Century Center for the Performing Arts on Monday Feb. 20 -earlier than the Feb. 26 close date that was recently announced.

In recent days, the production has received some negative publicity through a series of articles in the New York Post. The daily reported Feb. 17 that Dog Sees God producer Peter Stern and Martian Entertainment filed a $5 million suit against lead producer Dede Harris.

The suit charged that Harris made "sexual overtures to one or more" cast members of the show," accusing the producer of "fraudulent, reckless and grossly negligent behavior." Harris denied all the charges. The Post further reported that all of the producers had been banned from the theatre where Dog Sees God plays.

Trip Cullman (The Last Sunday in June) directed the take-off of the "Peanuts" characters, which began Dec. 1, 2005, and opened Dec. 15 at the downtown stage. By its run’s end, the show will have played 12 previews and 86 performances.

Bert V. Royal penned Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, which follows the original gang from the Charles Schulz comic strip a decade later, soon after their beloved beagle companion dies. Royal’s inspiration was to do a play "about teenagers because I think they are the scariest people, vicious and just mean spirited," the young scribe told Playbill.com. "I wanted to do it with some kids that we felt like we knew and show them as teenagers."

Impending adulthood has now resulted in new identities: a once popular boy in an existential dilemma; an abused pianist; a pyromaniac ex-girlfriend; two drunk cheerleaders; a homophobic quarterback; a burnt out Buddhist; and a drama queen sister.

The starry original cast included Eddie Kaye Thomas ("American Pie," Smelling A Rat) as CB, America Ferrara ("Real Women Have Curves," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants") as CB’s Sister, Keith Nobbs ("Phone Booth," Romance) as Van, Eliza Dushku ("Bring It On," "Tru Calling") as Van’s Sister, Ian Somerhalder ("Lost," "Rules of Attraction") as Matt, Kelli Garner ("The Aviator," "Thumbsucker") as Tricia, Ari Graynor ("Mystic River," Brooklyn Boy) as Marcy and Logan Marshall Green ("The O.C.," The Distance From Here) as Beethoven. For more on the characters and actors, visit Playbill.com’s "Meet the Gang" feature.