Roundabout Theatre Company associate artistic director Scott Ellis has been tapped to direct the upcoming revival of Rodgers and Hart's The Boys From Syracuse at the nonprofit. The tuner will play the American Airlines Theatre in spring 2002. Specific dates haven't been selected. No cast members have been named.
Ellis has directed many productions at the Roundabout in the past, including She Loves Me and The Rainmaker.
Adapted from Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors and said to be the first musical based on one of his works, Syracuse opened at the Alvin on Broadway in fall 1939. That production was directed by George Abbott and choreographed by George Balanchine. Eddie Albert, Betty Bruce, Teddy Hart, noted singer Burl Ives, Wynn Murray and vaudevillian Jimmy Savo starred.
The Boys from Syracuse featured the songs "Falling in Love with You," and "This Can't Be Love."
Noted revivals of Syracuse include an Off-Broadway run in 1963 and a London production at the Drury Lane in 1964. *
Other productions already announced for the 2001-02 Roundabout season include new stagings of George Bernard ShawÆs Major Barbara, directed by Daniel Sullivan; Clare Booth LuceÆs The Women, directed by Scott Elliot; and a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins at the Booth Theatre, directed by Joe Mantello. Previews for the latter will begin Nov. 1 with an opening on Nov. 29.
No casts have been announced for the Sondheim or Luce, but Cherry Jones will star as the title character in the Shaw, to be directed by Daniel Sullivan. She'll play opposite English actor David Warner.
Shaw's comedy-drama will begin previews June 15 and open July 12 at the American Airlines Theatre for a run through Sept. 2. Designers for the show include John Lee Beatty (set), Jane Greenwood (costumes), Brian MacDevitt (lighting).
Jones will play Barbara Undershaft, the idealistic Salvation Army worker who continues her good works even though her father is the egotistical and maddeningly well-spoken munitions industrialist Andrew Undershaft. The latter character is one of the greatest and most entertaining in all of Shaw. Actress Jones told Newsday, "The thing about Undershaft is that he has to have all these different facets, this civility and gentleness and calm, and yet he expresses these horrific ideas, which are also persuasive. I am beside myself with excitement about the entire cast."
That cast also includes Dana Ivey (The Death of Papa at CT's Hartford Stage), Zak Orth (Misalliance) and Denis O'Hare (Cabaret). (The latter will again be directed by Daniel Sullivan when Ten Unknowns moves from the Mitzi Newhouse to Broadway this fall).
Actor Warner is currently seen in the Arts & Entertainment Network's series "Retribution," about Captain Horatio Hornblower making Broadway debut.
Jones starred in the Broadway revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten in 2000. She won a Tony Award for The Heiress. Daniel Sullivan has done very well the past two season directing new works by contemporary authors, such as Proof, Ten Unknowns, Spinning Into Butter and Dinner With Friends. This will be his first stab at a classic since Moon.
