The Huntington Theatre Company production of Frank McGuinness' Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which played earlier this year up in the Boston venue and previously at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, will soon see the stage in New York City.
Huntington artistic director Nicholas Martin confirmed to the Boston Globe that he will helm the work at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre. Martin and a casting notice reported the play will begin previews Feb. 6, open Feb. 24 and run through April 13 at LCT's Off-Broadway venue.
Martin also mentioned the production would star "essentially the same cast" as its earlier stagings. Scott Wolf and Justin Theroux headlined the troupe in the Beantown co-production with Broadway in Boston/Clear Channel Entertainment (at the Wilbur Theatre) while the Williamstown staging also starred Richard Easton (Invention of Love) and David Aaron Baker (Homebody/Kabul). Filling out the Huntington cast were returning castmates Jason Butler Harner, Christopher Fitzgerald, Jonathan Walker and Rod McLachlan.
Sons of Ulster centers on a group of Irish Protestant Nationalists who volunteer to fight in Europe in the bloody Battle of the Somme at the opening of World War I. In an interview with Playbill Boston's Christopher Wallenberg in February, Martin spoke of the sought-after play, "I've been trying to get the rights to [Sons of Ulster] for 15 years." Following a New York Times review of Martin's production ofHedda Gabler he approached McGuinness' agent (also a friend) Phyllis Wender, and she went to the playwright with reviews. The scribe, who held the rights since 1995, authorized the production.
Both Wolf and Theroux have enjoyed screen time as well as stage time. Wolf is probably best remembered as Bailey Salinger on the television drama, "Party of Five." He also has donned the stage in Side Man on Broadway and Far East and Dead End at Williamstown. Theroux was featured in David Lynch's "Mullholland Drive" and has been seen in The Three Sisters on Broadway, Shopping and F****** and Twelfth Night. — by Ernio Hernandez
