The drama, about the unlikely relationship between the Irish author C.S. Lewis (Dance) and New York divorcee Joy Davidman (Dee), will officially open Oct. 8. Previews begin Oct. 3.

Nicholson's play, which was based on his award-winning television version, premiered at London's Queens Theatre in 1989 starring Nigel Hawthorne and Jane Lapotaire.

Set in 1950s Oxford, the work centers on the donnish C.S. Lewis, whose life alternates between a cold, book-cluttered house and the claret and High Church conversation of Oxford academia, and the New York Jewish Christian convert Davidman. She divorces; they marry; she dies of cancer.

The play not only explores the flowering of late love but asks why a loving God should permit suffering.

Dee was last seen in the West End in Michael Frayn's Donkeys' Years and with David Soul in Mack and Mabel. Other credits include Peter Hall's production of Pinter's Betrayal and Olivier-winning performances in Carousel and Comic Potential. Film actor Dance ("Gosford Park," "White Mischief") was last seen on the London stage with Jessica Lange in Robin Phillips' production of O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.

The cast of Shadowlands also includes John Standing, Richard Durden and Graham Padden.