Marian Seldes, filling in for the ailing Irene Worth, will open in the Broadway revival of Ring Round the Moon, said a spokesman for the show. Seldes has been performing the lead role of Madame Desmermortes since Worth suffered a stroke shortly before the show's first previews.
Seldes -- who was originally only expected to perform Worth's part on Saturday matinees -- will remain in the role until Worth recuperates. It is still hoped that Worth will return to the Lincoln Center Theatre production.
Worth's stroke caused the production to delay its first preview from April 1 to April 3. The production opens April 28 for a run through June 27.
Worth's career spans 50 years. She won a Tony Award for both Tiny Alice and Lost in Yonkers, as well as a 1975-76 revival of Sweet Bird of Youth. Off-Broadway work included a Public Theatre staging of Coriolanus, opposite Morgan Freeman.
Seldes' vast theatre credits include the original U.S. productions of Three Tall Women, A Delicate Balance and Deathtrap. For LCT, she appeared in Ivanov last season with Kevin Kline. *
The Lincoln Center Theatre revival of Anouilh's Ring Round the Moon stars Worth, English actor Toby Stephens, Simon Jones, Frances Conroy, Candy Buckley, Richard Clarke, Haviland Morris, Derek Smith, Gretchen Egolf, Joyce Van Patten and Fritz Weaver. Gerald Gutierrez directs.
Ring Round The Moon concerns twins brothers and the old woman who tries to control them. Stephens will play twins in the drama, while Worth will be the old aunt.
Stephens who recently essayed roles in visiting productions of two Racine plays -- Phedre and Brittanicus -- at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Jones was last seen on Broadway in the short-lived The Herbal Bed. Conroy received rave reviews for her performance in Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mt. Morgan at the Public Theatre last fall. (That production, with Conroy and Patrick Stewart in it, may return to Broadway this coming autumn, Miller has told Playbill On-Line.)
Buckley's credits include Defying Gravity and The Petrified Prince, both Off-Broadway. Veteran Weaver's credits stretch back four decades. He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in The Chalk Garden and has appeared in such productions as The Crucible and, more recently, The Professional at Circle Rep in 1995.
Anouilh was last represented on Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Rehearsal, starring Francis Conroy and Roger Rees. His other plays included Antigone, The Cry of the Peacock, and The Waltz of the Toreadors
For information on Ring Round The Moon, call (212) 239 6200.
