Jude Law’s Donmar Hamlet Transfers to Broadway

The year-long Donmar West End season will conclude with a Broadway transfer. After the season’s current and final production of Hamlet, for which Jude Law has won critical raves in the title role (See Review Round-up, 4 Jun 2009), finishes at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre on 22 August 2009, it will travel to Kronberg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark for an already sold-out run from 25 to 30 August and will then make the transatlantic move to New York’s Broadhurst Theatre for a limited 12-week season from 6 October (previews from 12 September).

The transfer of the production, directed by Michael Grandage, will mark Jude Law’s first appearance on Broadway since 1995 when he made his Tony Award-nominated debut in Jean Cocteau’s Indiscretions (Les Parents Terribles). Hamlet is the third Broadway transfer under Michael Grandage’s artistic directorship and follows the Broadhurst’s current resident, the Tony Award-winning Mary Stuart, starring Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter, and Grandage’s own production of Frost/Nixon.

Members of the Donmar company – which includes Penelope Wilton and Kevin R McNally – are expected to accompany Law in the transfer, though further New York casting details have not yet been announced. The production is directed by Grandage – filling in for Kenneth Branagh, the season’s artistic associate, who had to withdraw last autumn (See News, 14 Oct 2008) – and designed by Christopher Oram, with lighting by Neil Austin and sound by Adam Cork.

Hamlet’s Broadway season is produced by Arielle Tepper Madover, who will be emulating the Donmar’s accessible pricing strategy by making more than 100 tickets at every performance available for just $25.

Commenting on the transfer, Michael Grandage said today: “Following our recent productions of Frost/Nixon and Mary Stuart, I am delighted we have been invited to bring another of our productions to Broadway. We feel very privileged to be part of such a vibrant theatre community, and it is exciting to think that so many people will get to engage with our work and to witness Jude Law’s extraordinary performance.”