'Bengal Tiger' Makes Its Final Roar July 3; Stagings Planned for Germany, Italy, France (Playbill)

Rajiv Joseph's Pulitzer Prize finalist play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, starring Robin Williams as the self-questioning title character who roams a haunted patch of Iraq, circa 2003, ends its limited 16-week Broadway engagement as planned July 3 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, but there are future plans for the critically acclaimed drama.

The play, which had its world-premiere in 2009 at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, will next be seen in Europe as rights have been sold for productions in Germany, Italy and France. Broadway producer Robyn Goodman has also announced that discussions are underway for a London production as well.

Bengal Tiger was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Featured Actor in a Play for Arian Moayed; Best Lighting Design for David Lander; and Best Sound Design of a Play for Acme Sound and Cricket S. Myers. The production also received two Drama Desk Awards: Best Lighting for David Lander and Best Sound Design for Acme Sound and Cricket S. Myers.

At close, the production will have played 23 previews and 109 performances. The drama — flooded with dreamlike flashbacks, eruptions of violence and broken creatures pondering existential questions — was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Williams is making his Broadway acting debut as a grizzled feline set free from a cage in the Baghdad zoo. He is the only character to directly address the audience. Moises Kaufman, the director of Broadway's 33 Variations and I Am My Own Wife, directs the production, repeating work that he began in two Los Angeles engagements of the play.

The play is billed as a "savagely funny and deeply affecting play" in which "a tiger haunts the streets of present-day Baghdad seeking the meaning of life." The tiger "witnesses the puzzling absurdities of war," encountering "Americans and Iraqis who are searching for friendship, redemption and a toilet seat made of gold."

With the exception of Academy Award winner Williams ("Good Will Hunting," "Good Morning Vietnam," "Mrs. Doubtfire"), the Broadway company is made up of performers who appeared in earlier Los Angeles-area engagements of the acclaimed play in 2009 and 2010.

The troupe features Glenn Davis as Tom, an American Marine who plunders local riches; Brad Fleischer as Kev, a Marine broken by war; Hrach Titizian as the ghost of Uday Hussein and others; Sheila Vand in multiple roles; Necar Zadegan in multiple roles; and Arian Moayed as Musa, an Iraqi gardener (and witness to atrocities) now serving as a translator for American forces. (For the record, Kevin Tighe played the Tiger in California.)

Joseph is the 36-year-old American playwright whose plays include Gruesome Playground Injuries (recently at Off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre), Animals Out of Paper, Huck & Holden, All This Intimacy and The Leopard and the Fox.

The production has scenic design by Tony winner Derek McLane, costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by David Lander, sound design by Acme Sound Partners, and original music composed by Kathryn Bostic.

Director Kaufman received a Tony nomination for his direction of Doug Wright's play I Am My Own Wife, and a Tony nomination as playwright for 33 Variations, seen on Broadway starring Jane Fonda (it's currently playing Los Angeles). As founder of Tectonic Theatre Project, he wrote and directed Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, and directed The Laramie Project, which he co-wrote with other members of the company.

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is produced on Broadway by Robyn Goodman, Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller, Sander Jacobs, Ruth Hendel/Burnt Umber, Scott and Brian Zeilinger, Center Theater Group and Stephen Kocis/Walt Grossman.

The Rodgers (recently home to In the Heights) is at 226 W. 46 St. between Broadway and Eighth Avenue.

Tickets to Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo are also available by calling Ticketmaster at (877) 250-2929 or (800) 745-3000. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com or by visiting www.bengaltigeronbroadway.com.

View highlights from the show:

Yahoo! News

Hugh Jackman Says He Will Star in 'Les Miz' Film (Playbill)

Tony Award winner Hugh Jackman will play Jean Valjean in the film version of the international hit musical Les Miserables, he told a Toronto radio station.

Talking by phone to radio station 98.1 CHFI on June 27, in advance of the July 5 start of a concert engagement at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre, Jackman (The Boy From Oz) said, "I do have a desire to do a movie musical. Looks like that's coming true because I'm gonna do Les Miserables, the movie version of it, next year. I'm excited. That's something I need to bring my A-game for."

Jackman, who will take the role of moral hero Jean Valjean, said the film of Les Miz, which has its roots in the London, Broadway and international hit produced by Cameron Mackintosh, will start filming next year, after he shoots "Wolverine 2" this fall. The decades-spanning drama is drawn from the novel by Victor Hugo.

Paul Bettany ("Priest," "Wimbledon") has been mentioned in press reports to play Inspector Javert, who doggedly pursues the reformed thief Valjean.

Tom Hooper, the Oscar-nominated director of "The King's Speech," is expected to direct the film. Given the socially turbulent early 19th-century period in which the tale is set (fighting at the barricades, anyone?), the movie version produced by Working Title Films is to be a big-budget experience teeming with a large cast. Universal will distribute. No casting has been officially announced.

The stage musical is by Alain Boublil (book), Claude-Michel Schonberg (book and music) and Herbert Kretzmer (lyrics). William Nicholson has been mentioned as screenwriter.

Jackman also said that his career high so far was starring as Peter Allen in Broadway's The Boy From Oz, for which he won the Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical. Despite the bad reviews for the show, he said it was an extraordinary experience for him. He added that he is most happy when he is on a stage in front of an audience.

Hooper's film credit before the Best Picture-nominated "The King's Speech" was "The Damned United," about an English football coach. He was also director of the acclaimed miniseries "John Adams."

Jackman, who was seen on screen in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," is also known for his film roles in the "X-Men" trilogy, "Someone Like You," "Swordfish," "Kate and Leopold," "Van Helsing" and the recent "The Fountain" and "Happy Feet" (in voice). His stage credits also include Trevor Nunn's staging of Oklahoma! at Britian's National Theatre and award-winning work in productions of Sunset Boulevard and Beauty and the Beast in his homeland, Australia.

Jackman's 90-minute Toronto concert July 5-17 at the Princess of Wales Theatre will be a mix of songs, stories and video, he told CHFI radio.

Yahoo! News

Justin Bartha, David Wilson Barnes, Anna Camp and Krysten Ritter Are 'All New People' Off-Broadway June 28 (Playbill)

The world premiere of the play All New People, penned by "Scrubs" star Zach Braff, begins previews Off-Broadway June 28 at Second Stage Theatre. Justin Bartha, David Wilson Barnes, Anna Camp and Krysten Ritter star.

Peter DuBois, who directed Braff in Paul Weitz's Trust at 2ST last summer, directs All New People, which opens July 25 for a run through Aug. 14.

According to 2ST, "It's the dead of winter and the summer vacation getaway of Long Beach Island, New Jersey is desolate and blanketed in snow. Charlie is 35, heartbroken and just wants some time away from the rest of the world. The island ghost town seems to be the perfect escape until his solitude is interrupted by a motley parade of misfits who show up and change his plans. A hired beauty, the townie fireman, and an eccentric British real estate agent desperately trying to stay in the country suddenly find themselves tangled together in a beach house where the mood is anything but sunny."

Bartha made his Broadway debut last season in the revival of Lend Me a Tenor. His film roles include "The Hangover," "The Rebound" and "National Treasure." Barnes was last seen in the 2ST production of Becky Shaw and Broadway's The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Camp performed in the 2ST production of The Scene and the Broadway revival of Equus; while Ritter was seen in 2ST's All This Intimacy and the films "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "She's Out of My League."

All New People has scenic design by Alexander Dodge, costume design by Bobby Frederick Tilley II, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, sound design by M.L. Dogg and projections by Aaron Rhyne.

Perhaps best known for his role on "Scrubs," Braff is also the author-director of the 2004 film "Garden State," in which he also starred. Second Stage also presented Trust last summer, which featured Braff alongside Bobby Cannavale, Sutton Foster and Ari Graynor.

DuBois is the artistic director of the Huntington Theatre Company. For 2ST, he also staged Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw. He has also directed Bob Glaudini’s Jack Goes Boating with Philip Seymour Hoffman, A View from 151st Street, Adrienne Kennedy’s Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles and Richard III with Peter Dinklage.

For tickets visit 2ST.com. Second Stage Theatre is located at 305 West 43rd Street in Manhattan.

Yahoo! News

Sarah Jessica Parker Will Give 'Annie' Authors Goodspeed Award June 4 (Playbill)

Sarah Jessica Parker, the international TV and film star whose early career included donning a red wig, red dress and patent-leather Mary Janes as Broadway's Annie, will present an award to that show's creators at a June 4 benefit for Goodspeed Musicals.

Parker will present The Goodspeed Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre to Annie's Tony Award-winning writers Thomas Meehan (librettist), Charles Strouse (composer) and Martin Charnin (lyricist) at Goodspeed Musicals' Gala in Connecticut.

Conrad John Schuck, who made his Broadway debut as Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in 1979, is master of cermonies for the entertainment-filled event.

The benefit is at The Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station, 55 Bridge Street (Route 82), in Haddam, CT, not far from East Haddam, where Goodspeed Opera House gave Annie its premiere prior to worldwide fame.

The Gala will include a cocktail hour and a dinner followed by a live auction and entertainment by some of Broadway's finest performers "celebrating Annie and its amazing journey from Goodspeed's stage to Broadway, the West End, and the silver screen."

Proceeds from the Gala will support Goodspeed Musicals' Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre.

The Honorary Committee (with some members present) will include Andrea McArdle, who originated the role of Annie at the Goodspeed Opera House and on Broadway; William Berloni, the 2011 Special Tony Award-honored theatrical animal trainer who adopted and trained the original Sandy; Ken Billington, lighting designer for the 1997 Broadway revival of Annie; Sutton Foster, who appeared in the Broadway revival of Annie in 1997 (she's busy as a Tony nominee of Broadway's Anything Goes); Freddie Gershon of Music Theater International; Arielle Tepper Madover, producer of the 2012 Broadway revival of Annie; James L. Nederlander and James M. Nederlander, Broadway producers of the original Annie; and Wendy Orshan, general manager for the upcoming 2012 Broadway revival.

Visit goodspeed.org.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Carey Mulligan Hears Voices in Ingmar Bergman's 'Through a Glass Darkly' in NYC (Playbill)

The fragile, fractured mind of an Ingmar Bergman heroine fresh from the psych ward is explored anew with the May 13 first preview of Through a Glass Darkly, the American premiere of Jenny Worton's adaptation of Bergman's black-and-white Oscar-winning film. Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan plays Karin, in living color.

Golden Globe Award nominee Mulligan ("An Education") is joined by Academy Award nominee Chris Sarandon, Jason Butler Harner and Ben Rosenfield in the 90-minute drama of familial unhappiness and existential wondering produced by Atlantic Theater Company and directed by Tony Award nominee David Leveaux (whose Arcadia is currently on Broadway).

Opening night is June 6. The run will continue through July 3 Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 E. 4th Street, while Atlantic's main stage Linda Gross Theater undergoes renovation.

In the drama, according to ATC, "Karin (Mulligan) is the central figure in the lives of her family, not least because her own tenuous grip on reality keeps everyone in constant motion around her. On an annual vacation to a beautiful remote island, tensions flare as her husband (Harner), father (Sarandon) and brother (Rosenfield) struggle over the best way to help her. When a legacy of denial and repression boils over, threatening the future of the entire family, Karin decides that she must take command of her own destiny."

The film "Through a Glass Darkly," the action of which takes place in a 24-hour period, won the 1962 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.

The title of the work is drawn from Chapter 13 of the Bible's New Testament, the First Epistle to the Corinthians.

Sarandon makes his Atlantic Theater Company debut and returns to the Off-Broadway stage for the first time in over 25 years. He most recently appeared on Broadway in the revival of Cyrano de Bergerac and the musical The Light in the Piazza. He is best known for his critically acclaimed Oscar-nominated performance as Leon in the film "Dog Day Afternoon."

Harner most recently appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning production of The Coast of Utopia and opposite Angelina Jolie in the feature film "The Changeling." He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance in the Jon Robin Baitz play The Paris Letter and an Obie Award for his work in the Off-Broadway revival of Hedda Gabler.

Rosenfield makes his professional Off-Broadway debut.

Mulligan returns to the New York stage following her Broadway debut as Nina in the 2008 revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination. Read Playbill magazine's new feature in which Mulligan says Darkly's Karin is akin to Chekhov's Nina, though Karin is more severely disturbed.

Muligan received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations and a BAFTA Award for her critically acclaimed breakthrough role in the film "An Education."

Playwright Worton is the artistic associate of the Almeida Theatre in London. She adapted the play Dolls for the National Theatre of Scotland and served as dramaturg for London's Gate Theatre production of the play Breathing Irregular.

Leveaux received Tony nominations for the Tony Award-winning revival of The Real Thing, the Tony Award-nominated revival of Jumpers and the Broadway productions of Nine, Anna Christie and A Moon for the Misbegotten.

The Through a Glass Darkly creative team includes scenic designer Takeshi Kata, costume designer Jess Goldstein and lighting designer David Weiner with original music and sound design by David Van Tieghem.

The stage adaptation of Through a Glass Darkly made its world premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London on June 16, 2010.

For more information, visit www.atlantictheater.org or call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.