Brown and Benanti to lead CUCKOO’S NEST reading

https://variety.com/2023/legit/columns/sterling-k-brown-laura-benanti-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest-1235616921/

According to Variety, three-time Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown and Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti will star in a reading of a new Broadway-aimed stage production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on May 18 in New York City.

Sources tell Variety that Brown will portray psych ward rabblerouser Randle P. McMurphy with Benanti as his steely foil Nurse Ratched.

The reading will be directed by Young Vicartistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah, best known to New York audiences for his productions of Twelfth Night, A Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing for The Public Theater.

I actually think Benanti would be great in this. We all know she can do comedy but I've always sensed something Betty Buckley-ish waiting to come out.

(Not a knock to Betty who would've been great in this part and by all accounts is an incredibly warm person in day to day life. I'm merely speaking on stage presence)

The most serious screen role I've seen her in was the Netflix film WORTH (Michael Keaton/Stanley Tucci movie about the 9/11 Victim Commission Fund). Different vibe than this - an un-showy grieving woman - but she naturally holds her own.

Updated On: 5/18/23 at 09:46 AM

Soaring29 said: "Benanti is miscast in this role but it's hard to forget Louise Fletcher in the role. I'm open to being proven wrong."



Kind of a stupid statement to make -- given a) she isn't even confirmed; b) it's only a reading; and c) no one has witnessed her say a line of dialogue.