No official announcement has been made concerning dates or theatre by representatives of Pillowman.
The casting notice listed John Crowley as director and a first rehearsal of Aug. 23.
Pillowman will be the second National show to be brought over by Boyett, after the currently running Jumpers. Michael Frayn's Democracy is also due on the Broadway boards this fall.
Jumpers, the first play from the Royal National Theatre's success-spangled 2003 season to reach American shores, is also the first to benefit from American producers Bob Boyett and Ostar Productions' deal with the National to get first rights to transfer shows from the National to the U.S.
Both Pillowman and Democracy were nominated for the Olivier Awards Best Play prize. In what might be considered a minor upset, Democracy lost to The Pillowman. The Pillowman is billed as a "vicious and disturbing comedy" from the Irish writer who gave us the Leenane trilogy — The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West.
The Pillowman opened at London's National Theatre on Nov. 13, in the Cottesloe. Drawing inspiration from the nastiness behind many children's tales, McDonagh depicts a writer in a totalitarian state who is interrogated about the horrific events in his short stories (such as fathers being given razor blade-filled apples to eat by their offspring), and, more frighteningly, their similarity to child murders that are occurring in the same town.
The writer is played by David Tennant. Jim Broadbent, riding high these days after his Oscar and Golden Globe awards for the movie "Iris" and appearance in "Moulin Rouge," is one of the interrogators. The cast also includes James Daley, Adam Godley, Jennifer Higham, Nigel Lindsay, Victoria Pembroke and Mike Sherman.
John Crowley directed, with designs by Scott Pask, lighting by Hugh Vanstone and sound by Paul Arditti.
McDonagh, who first rose to fame with The Cripple of Inishmaan at the National, returns to the RNT for the first time since then. He was Tony Award-nominated for Best Play two years running, for the Broadway transfers of The Beauty Queen Of Leenane (1998) and The Lonesome West (1999).
