The Simon Gray comedy has been shifted to the slot previously announced for the world premiere of Jon Robin Baitz's The Paris Letter — which is now postponed due to "artist's scheduling difficulties." The recent Playwrights Horizons solo show, Bad Dates by Theresa Rebeck, will now fill the Jan. 2-Feb. 1, 2004 slot with its Off-Broadway star Julie White.

Butley will be directed by Huntington's artistic director Nicholas Martin (Observe the Sons of Ulster...). Lane will play the title role as a literary professor who loses his wife and lover in the same day.

The dark comedy set in a London university opened at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway Oct. 31, 1972. British thespian Alan Bates (Fortune's Fool), who originated the title role in the Harold Pinter-directed London production (for which he won the Evening Standard Best Actor Award), reprised his portrayal to Tony Award winning success.

Lane, who recently made secret guest appearances on Broadway in The Play What I Wrote, won Tony Awards for his turns in The Producers and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Other credits include The Man Who Came to Dinner, Guys and Dolls, Love! Valour! Compassion! and Laughter on the 23rd Floor.

The busy Lane will reprise the role of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in Christopher Trumbo's new play Trumbo, Aug. 26-Sept. 21. Following his Boston stint in Butley, he is in talks to return to Broadway's The Producers, Dec. 31 for a three-month stint. In June of 2004, he will star in — and has done some rewriting for — a staging of the Burt Shevelove adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs for the Lincoln Center Theater season. (Not to mention, his hosting duties at the annual Broadway on Broadway concert, Sept. 7.) The Huntington's shuffled six-play season runs as follows: (subject to change)