All-American Art Arrives 28 July
Date: 3 July 1998
An all-American company is due in the West End later this month to take over as the seventh cast of Art, the award-winning comedy by Yasmina Reza. The cast, the first all-American one for the London production which has been running at the Wyndham's Theatre since 15 October 1996, will include George Wendt as 'Serge', Stacy Keach as 'Marc' and David Dukes as 'Yvan'. They will take over from Tuesday, 28 July 1998.
The move is part of a unique initiative, worked out with British and American branches of the actors' union Equity, in which producers will run a series of exchanges between actors within the West End and Broadway productions of Art. The exchanges will allow audiences on either side of the Atlantic to experience both the Olivier and Tony-Award winning productions of the same play. This is the first of the exchanges; a fully British cast will transfer to the Royale Theatre in New York this autumn.
Members of the imported cast are well-known to American and British television audiences. George Wendt is best known for his role as 'Norm Peterson' in Cheers, for which he received six Emmy nominations. Stacy Keach, who starred in TV detective series Mike Hammer, has also appeared in films including The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Fat City and Escape from LA. David Dukes has starred in TV mini-series such as The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. His Broadway credits include Amadeus, Bent and M. Butterfly.
The London production of Art, which has won both the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Comedy, has long attracted top-notch British actors for its three-month stints. The original cast starred Albert Finney, Tom Courtney and Ken Stott; the current one (whose final appearance is 26 July) features Richard Griffiths, Malcolm Storry and Tony Haygarth. The recently opened New York production - starring Alan Alda, Victor Garber and Alfred Molina - has just won the Tony Award for Best Play. Both productions are directed by Matthew Warchus.
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