Boys Have Faith in Brits On & Off Broadway???
Date: 2 May 2006
Last week, Alan Bennett’s
The History Boys opened to rave reviews – with the notable exception of the
New York Post - at on Broadway’s Broadhurst Theater, where it’s now strictly standing room only, and a true media frenzy has broken out around
Richard Griffiths and the original cast of boys, including double Whatsonstage.com Award winner
Samuel Barnett. Good luck to them! This week, it’s the turn of another London-originated production: Jonathan Kent’s revival of Brian Friel’s 1979 three-hander
Faith Healer, which was originally staged in 2001 at the Almeida, where Kent’s then joint artistic director
Ian McDiarmid won a Critics’ Circle Award for Best Actor for his performance as Teddy, manager of Frank Hardy, the faith healer of the title. Kent restaged the play earlier this year at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, where
Ralph Fiennes played Frank. On Broadway, McDiarmid and Fiennes are joined by Cherry Jones.
Faith Healer has its opening at the Booth Theatre on Thursday (4 May 2006) but, following previews since 18 April, it’s already the second-biggest grossing play on Broadway (after the Julia Roberts-led
Three Days of Rain), according to last week’s takings report in
Variety. Other Brits currently waving the Union Jack on the Great White Way include:
Zoe Wanamaker in
Awake and Sing,
Jonathan Pryce in
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and
Eileen Atkins in
Doubt. Meanwhile, across town at 59E59 Theaters, the third annual
Brits Off Broadway gets under way today (See
The Goss, 7 Jun 2005). The two-month “festival of new British theatre” runs this year from 2 May to 2 July 2006. Amongst the programme highlights are Simon Reade’s adaptation of Michael Morpugo’s
Private Peaceful, Dennis Kelly’s
After the End, Ron Hutchinson’s
Beau Brummell, Kay Adshead’s
The Bogus Woman, Daniel Kitson’s
Stories for the Wobbly Hearted and
Defying Hitler starring
Rupert Wickham.
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