Still no word on further casting (besides star Natalie Portman) for James Lapine's upcoming Broadway revival of The Diary Of Anne Frank. The show is scheduled to begin previews in November and open early December at a theatre to be announced. Before Broadway, the production will try out in October at Boston, MA's Colonial Theatre, Oct. 28-Nov. 16. According to Theatrical Index, rehearsals begin Sept. 15, but performance dates in New York have not yet been set.
The revival will use a revised script that "includes more frank material than the original, such as the young girl's sexual awakening," Variety reported. According to the Publicity Office, playwright Wendy Kesselman will adapt the Albert Hackett/Frances Goodrich drama with passages from the 1995 Doubleday volume, "The Diary Of A Young Girl: The Definitive Edition," which contains 30 percent more material than was originally published.
Fifteen-year-old actress Natalie Portman pulled out of a Robert Redford film in order to appear on Broadway in the title role. She appears in the recent films Mars Attacks! and Woody Allen's Everybody Says I Love You but withdrew from The Horse Whisperer, directed by Redford, in order to appear in the 1955 drama about a Dutch Jewish teenager hiding with her family from the Nazis during World War II.
Frank, who died in a concentration camp after her family was discovered, lived on in her diaries, which were found by the family that hid her. Portman reportedly regards Frank as a personal hero.
Portman, who had appeared previously in 1994's The Professional and 1996's Beautiful Girls, will be directed by longtime Sondheim collaborator Lapine (Sunday In The Park With George). Producers David Stone and Amy Nederlander-Case reportedly "expect to pair a top actor with Portman" in the role of her father, Otto Frank, but gave no name. As of June 26, according to spokesperson Brett Oberman of the Publicity Office, no other cast members besides Portman have been chosen. Designers for the show include costumer Martin Pakledinaz (The Life), set designer Adrienne Lobel (Passion), lighting designer Brian MacDevitt (Master Class), and sound designer Dan Moses Schreier (Noise/Funk).
