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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Abigail Breslin To Play Helen Keller on Broadway

A new production of William Gibson's wonderful play The Miracle Worker is bound for Broadway in February 2010. Young film actress Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Signs, and the new release Zombieland) will play Helen Keller in this production alongside New York theater regular Alison Pill (Mauritius and The Lieutenant of Inishmore on Broadway) as her determined teacher Annie Sullivan. The production, under the direction of Ruined helmer Kate Whoriskey, will play at the Circle in the Square Theatre. A 2003 production of The Miracle Worker starring Hilary Swank was supposed to come to Broadway following its run in Charlotte, but that engagement fell through. The drama is of course well known to movie audiences everywhere because of the fine film version starring Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, who both starred in the original Broadway production.

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Scarlet Johansson Gets A View From The Bridge

Movie actress Scarlet Johansson (Lost in Translation, Match Point) is going to be making her Broadway debut later this year in a new revival of the Arthur Miller drama A View From the Bridge. She will be co-starring alongside Broadway regular Liev Schreiber (a Tony winner for Glengarry Glen Ross), who will play her working class Brooklyn uncle, Eddie. The production, directed by Gregory Mosher, will begin performances at the Cort Theatre on December 28, 2009, with an official Broadway opening scheduled for January 24, 2010. A View From the Bridge will be a strictly limited engagement, playing only 14 weeks.

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

New Cast For God of Carnage

Yasmina Reza's dark comedy God of Carnage, a breakout hit last season and the Best Play Tony Award winner, is still going strong at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. Unfortunately its all-star cast - James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels, and Hope Davis - wasn't prepared for such a long run, so the show's producers are having to bring in a new cast in order to keep the show running. The good news is that they have secured some fine actors. As of November 17, the four actors playing God of Carnage's dysfunctional couples will be Jimmy Smits, Annie Potts, Christine Lahti, and Ken Stott (who was in the original London production of the play).

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Sunday, October 11, 2009

It's Opening Night For Oleanna

With recent revivals of Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo, and Speed-the-Plow, Broadway has been a great friend to playwright David Mamet lately. Tonight marks the opening night for the latest Mamet revival, Oleanna, starring Bill Pullman (The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? on Broadway) and Julia Stiles (Shakespeare in the Park's Twelfth Night, Off-Broadway's Fran's Bed) as a college professor and student, respectively. The Doug Hughes-directed production of the play about sexual politics was seen previously in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum, and now hits Broadway's John Golden Theatre for an open run. David Mamet will next be represented on Broadway with a new drama, the race-related play Race starring James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington, and Richard Thomas.

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Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Royal Family Opens on Broadway

The Royal Family will hold court at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre tonight when it has its official Broadway opening. The 1927 comedy by playwriting greats George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber is about a family of flamboyant theater performers called the Cavendishes (based on the legendary real-life Barrymore clan). This Manhattan Theatre Club production of the play stars Rosemary Harris, Jan Maxwell, Larry Pine, Reg Rogers, Tony Roberts (Broadway's Xanadu), John Glover (recently on Broadway in Roundabout's Waiting For Godot revival), and Ana Gasteyer (Wicked, TV's Saturday Night Live). Directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt), the production is scheduled to run at the Friedman Theatre through November 29th.

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