Peter Herman (OB's The Gathering), Peter Kybart and Rex Robbins (The Sisters Rosensweig) are the latest additions to the cast of Judgment at Nuremberg, a new drama opening in early spring at Broadway's Longacre Theatre. These actors join the previously announced performers Maximilian Schell, George Grizzard, Marthe Keller, Joseph Wiseman, Michael Hayden, Michael Mastro, Susan Kellerman and Heather Randall. Only a couple of small roles remain uncast but are due to be announced before the holidays, according to a production spokesperson at the Springer/Chicoine office (reached Dec. 19).
Previews for Nuremberg are slated to begin Feb. 15 for a tentative opening March 26, 2001. Rehearsals are scheduled to commence in mid January, with John Tillinger directing Abby Mann's script, adapted from his own screenplay.
Mastro played Ziggy in the Off-Broadway and Broadway casts of the Tony winning Side Man. The Nuremberg role will mark Broadway appearance number 2 and 1/2 for the actor; he was in the Christopher Plummer vehicle Barrymore, but only as an offstage voice, occasionally prompting the drunken protagonist.
Hayden’s credits include Far East and the last Broadway revival of Carousel. Keller’s film credits include “Black Sunday” and “Bobby Deerfield.” Randall, the wife of company artistic director and “Odd Couple” actor Tony Randall, appeared in OOB’s Hansen’s Cab last season. She will have the Judy Garland role of a Holocaust survivor in Nuremberg, which deals with the post-WWII trial of Nazi high command and functionaries.
Actor Schell, unforgettable as the volcanic attorney defending Nazi war criminals in the film version of Nuremberg, returns to the material - albeit in a different role. This time he's playing a defendant, a calm, intelligent man who should have known better than to just follow orders. (The role was played by Burt Lancaster in the movie.) No word yet on which role Grizzard will undertake. Apart from his Tony-winning stint in the recent revival of A Delicate Balance, Grizzard’s other stage credits have included 1959’s The Disenchanted and 1961’s Big Fish, Little Fish, both of which earned him Featured Actor Tony nominations. Production spokesperson Gary Springer confirmed that the show’s designers will be James Noone on sets, Jess Goldstein on costumes and Brian MacDevitt on lighting.
Variety had mentioned (Aug. 31) that actor Schell was recently recovering in a Munich hospital after collapsing at the Latvian Film Festival. He didn't require surgery, and Nuremberg spokespersons say he's recovered, remains with the project, and has been in frequent contact with the producers about the show.
Judgment at Nuremberg began life at a television production. It was subsequently made into a film starring Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift, Lancaster, Judy Garland, Schell and Marlene Dietrich. The NAT commissioned Mann to adapt his own script for the stage. (The play has no connection, by the way, to another television piece: "Nuremberg," a four hour docudrama by David W. Rintels, which premiered July 16 on Turner Network Television.)
Judgment will mark the NAT's first venture since Night Must Fall, which closed on Broadway in spring 1999. Since its first two seasons, in the early '90s, the NAT has operated in a more casual manner, presenting a play whenever the needed elements and talent were brought together. Past productions have included The Gin Game and Inherit the Wind.
Tillinger, whose most recent credit was the short-lived Suite in Two Keys Off Broadway, has almost become the house director for the NAT. For the company, he has mounted Inherit the Wind, Night Must Fall, The Sunshine Boys and Three Men on a Horse.
