An American Express cardholder pre-sale begins Oct. 29.
Ian Rickson, who staged Broadway's current acclaimed production of The Seagull, will direct the famous tale of frustrated late 19th-century wife Hedda for the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Cerveris (who won a Best Featured Actor Tony for Roundabout's Assassins and starred in Sweeney Todd, The Who's Tommy and is in the current Road Show by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman) will play Hedda's husband, the dry academic Jorgen Tesman. Sparks (of Broadway's Take Me Out and Off-Broadway's Lady, Pumpgirl, Essential Self Defense and Finer Noble Gases) will play Ejlert Lovborg, Hedda's prey. Parker (a Best Actress Tony winner for Proof, nominee for Reckless, and star of TV's "Weeds") will be Hedda.
Additional cast members will be announced shortly.
Hedda Gabler will begin previews Jan. 6, 2009 and open Jan. 25, 2009 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway at 227 W. 42nd Street. This will be a limited engagement through March 29, 2009. The design team includes Hildegard Bechtler (sets), Ann Roth (costumes), Natasha Katz (lights), John Gromada (sound).
According to Roundabout, in "this new interpretation of Henrik Ibsen's modern classic," Hedda is "a woman of dangerous independence restrained by a conventional marriage. [She] indulges in a cruel game, amusing herself with the misfortune she inflicts on those around her. As Hedda struggles to balance her wild desires against her chosen life, she sets into motion a manic chain of events that bring her story to a chilling end."
Roundabout Theatre Company has produced a number of Henrik Ibsen's plays including Hedda Gabler (1994, Broadway), An Enemy of the People (1985), The Master Builder (1983), Hedda Gabler (1981), Little Eyolf (1979), John Gabriel Borkman (1976), Rosmersholm (1974) and The Master Builder (1971).
Adaptor Shinn was born in Hartford, CT, and lives in New York. His plays have been premiered by the Royal Court, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, South Coast Rep, and Soho Theatre. He is a winner of an Obie Award in Playwriting, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting. He has received grants from the NEA/TCG Residency Program and the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and he is recipient of the Robert S. Chesley Award. He teaches playwriting at the New School for Drama.
Tickets will be available exclusively to American Express Card members beginning Oct. 29, online at Broadway.Yahoo.com, by phone at (212) 719-1300, or at the American Airlines Box Office (227 West 42nd Street). Ticket prices range from $66.50 to $111.50.
Public on-sale begins Nov. 14 by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the American Airlines box office. Through ACCESS Roundabout, 100 tickets will be available for the first preview performance (Jan. 6, 2009) for only $10 each.
