The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th
The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th
The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#0
Posted: 5/9/06 at 2:47pm
This is going to be a major event:
"Lincoln Center has settled on start and finish dates for the fall 2006 U.S. debut of Tom Stoppard's ambitious series of plays known as The Coast of Utopia.
The trilogy will begin on Oct. 10 with the first performance of the first play, Voyage. All three works will have opened and concluded their runs by March 3, 2007. The plays will open separately, one after another. They will begin to play in rep later in the schedule.
Jack O'Brien, the Broadway director of Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Henry IV and The Invention of Love, will helm the New York bow of the nine-hour Coast of Utopia triptych.
The works first appeared under the direction of Trevor Nunn in 2002 at the National Theatre in England.
The Coast of Utopia is centered on the political and philosophical idealism and debates of mid-nineteenth-century Russia, examining the movements that excited artists and thinkers in those days. The show moves chronologically on from the 1830s, when the great Romantic poet Pushkin was still alive and his epic poem "Eugene Onegin" was all the rage in educated circles.
The main characters are the anarchist Michael Bakunin (played by Douglas Henshall in London) who was to challenge Marx (played by Paul Ritter) for the soul of the masses; Ivan Turgenev (played by Guy Henry), author of some of the most enduring works in Russian literature; the brilliant, erratic young critic Vissarion Belinsky (played by Will Keen); and Alexander Herzen (played by Stephen Dillane)."
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/99588.html
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#1
Posted: 5/9/06 at 2:48pm
Director Jack O'Brien:
"Stoppard, O'Brien previously told Playbill.com, "is doing an enormous amount of work on the script, and he's been wonderfully collaborative about that. Don't forget, they were staging it while he was writing it. It's a trilogy…so it really does need a little distance by everybody, including Tom. I think he, in his own words, was ready to what he called 'take it back' and rethink it. He's done a lot of that."
"I'm very excited about it," O'Brien told Playbill.com. "I've been lucky with Tom's work because I've had the advantage of going to school on great directors like Richard Eyre and Trevor Nunn and seeing what they've done. Tom's pieces always take a lot of time to absorb and sift down. He's arguably the greatest writer of our century, for the stage. Doing them off the top of your head, it's very hard to conceive that. So I'm very grateful that I've got this time to sift it down and work with [designer Bob] Crowley [of The Invention of Love] again and sort of see what we can come up with."
O'Brien said it was accurate to view the planned New York staging as the world premiere of the revised version of the works. "It won't be the nine hours [it was in England]," he said. "I'm hoping to get at least an hour out of it. It's three evenings. The 'marathon' [of all three together] will only be able to be done once or twice. In a week, I don't think you can sustain that much."
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#2
Posted: 5/9/06 at 2:49pmEthan Hawke and Brian F. O'Byrne will reportedly star, according to Variety. Updated On: 6/19/06 at 02:49 PM
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#3
Posted: 5/9/06 at 3:17pmThat provides a few more months should Piazza extend again.
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#4
Posted: 5/9/06 at 3:24pm
Well, the last time Jack O'Brien directed for Lincoln Center, he put together a brilliant Tony-winning production of Henry IV, starring Kevin Kline, Michael Hayden, Richard Easton, Dana Ivey, Byron Jennings, that, no less than a critic/curmudgeon than John Simon declared the single greatest American Shakespeare production that he'd ever seen (and he's been around for nearly 50 years).
And the last time O'Brien directed Stoppard, it was in the acclaimed Broadway production of The Invention of Love from a few years ago, which won both Richard Easton and Robert Sean Leonard Tonys (and several other nominations includng Best Play and Best Director).
I'm personally quite optimistic about this production.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/19/05
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#5
Posted: 5/9/06 at 3:24pmI don't think Piazza will extend, hasn't their attendance been pretty low the past couple of weeks
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#6
Posted: 5/9/06 at 4:02pmYes attendance has been low the last few weeks, but I would excpet it would pick up again following the airing on Live from Lincoln Center and with the summer season.
Broadway Star Joined: 6/17/04
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#7
Posted: 6/17/06 at 2:54pmAny news on casting? I thought they had auditions a couple of weeks ago. I saw this in London with Stephen Dillane (he was superb), and I'm really looking forward to seeing a different production.
Broadway Star Joined: 6/17/04
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#8
Posted: 6/19/06 at 8:52am
I just saw a report where Ethan Hawke is involved with the play. Has anyone seen him on stage?
I did not particularly care for his Hamlet on film.
Wonder if he's to play Herzen or Bakunin. I don't see him in either of the other 2 male lead roles. Dillane has such gravitas on stage, it's hard to imagine Hawke playing Herzen, but maybe he'll pull it off (if he's to play that role).
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#9
Posted: 6/19/06 at 9:10amEthan Hawke is a very good stage actor. Recently, he's been seen as Eddie in the revival of David Rabe's HURLYBURLY; as Hotspur in Jack O'Brien's HENRY IV for LCT; and has appeared in plays by many accomplished writers, such as Chekov, Sam Shepard, Shakespeare, etc.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#10
Posted: 6/19/06 at 9:40am
I don't mean to seem stupid, but what does it mean that they will be performed in "rep" later in the run?
So, I guess, seeing all three will be incredibly expensive, no?
Broadway Star Joined: 6/17/04
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#11
Posted: 6/19/06 at 9:57am
Seeing all 3 will be expensive, and tough to do if you aren't located in the NY area, as it will require 3 trips into the city.
In London, they had numerous trilogy days fairly early on in the run. In NY, it looks like there will be few of them, and only near the end of the run.
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#12
Posted: 6/19/06 at 10:02am
A. Piazza should not extend. In my book, it is very overrated and has run long enough.
B. If Brian F. O'Byrne gets this gig, then he has certainly become the go-to guy for plays, hasn't he? I mean, this will be the fourth season in a row that he has acted in a new production.
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#13
Posted: 6/25/06 at 12:16pmI am so psyched to hear that The Coast of Utopia is coming to Broadway. I read all three parts of the play and loved them. God knows what'll happen when it reaches Tony time. Personally, I think they should open the play Lord of the Rings style. Part One the first year, Part Two the second year, and Part Three the third year. Just my opinion.
re: The Coast of Utopia to Begin October 10th#14
Posted: 6/25/06 at 2:25pm
The cast will include:
Ethan Hawke
Billy Crudup
Jennifer Ehle
Brian F. O'Byrne
Martha Plimpton
Richard Easton
Josh Hamilton
David Harbour
Quite a stellar line-up, if you ask me.
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