Dallas' Linda Gray Endears on Tour Before West EndDate: 19 July 2007
Dallas’ Linda Gray (pictured) and Whatsonstage.com Award winner Suranne Jones will star in a new stage version of the 1983 Oscar-winning film Terms of Endearment. The adaptation will have its world premiere on 24 August 2007 at York Theatre Royal before touring, until 1 December, to ten further venues prior to a planned West End transfer.
Billed as a comedy drama, Terms of Endearment explores the tumultuous relationship between a devoted but opinionated mother and her headstrong daughter. While Aurora Greenway struggles to maintain order over daughter Emma’s chaotic life, she finds her own taking an unexpectedly thrilling turn as she falls deeply in love for the first time with retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove.
The Hollywood film - directed by James L Brooks and starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson - won five Oscars, including Best Actress for MacLaine, Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson and Best Picture.
Linda Gray, who plays Aurora, is best known for her portrayal of Sue Ellen in long-running American TV series Dallas. She graced the UK stage six years ago when she stripped off in The Graduate at the Gielgud Theatre, marking her West End debut (See News, 29 Aug 2001). She also reprised her performance as Mrs Robinson on Broadway.
Suranne Jones, who plays Emma, made her West End debut alongside Hollywood’s Rob Lowe in the belated UK premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 Broadway hit A Few Good Men (later made into the 1992 movie with Tom Cruise) at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, for which she won the Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Supporting Actress. She’s also well known for Coronation Street, having played Karen McDonald for seven years.
John Bowe, who plays Garrett, is a regular at the Royal Shakespeare Company where his credits include Hamlet, As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra and Richard II. On TV, he’s been seen in Dalziel & Pascoe, Silent Witness, Tipping the Velvet and Murder in Mind. The cast also includes Robert Fitch and Katherine Heath.
The stage version of Terms of Endearment is based on the original 1975 novel by Larry McMurtry as well as the film’s screenplay by James L Brooks. The play is directed is David Taylor and designed by Julie Godfrey, with lighting by Oliver Fenwick. This new production is presented on tour by Lee Dean, Jenny Topper, Laurence Myers, Charles Diamond, Hilary Williams in association with GR8 Theatricals and York Theatre Royal. No London venue or dates have yet been confirmed.
- by Stuart Denison
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