Set in both 1809 and the present, the show returns to Broadway with original 1995 cast member, Tony Award winner Billy Crudup, in tow. Crudup played Septimus Hodge in the play's Broadway debut and now takes on the role of literary academic Bernard Nightingale.
The original Broadway production opened at Lincoln Center's Beaumont Theatre March 31, 1995, and ran for 173 performances. The cast featured Lisa Banes as Lady Croom, Blair Brown as Hannah Jarvis, Richard Clarke as Jellaby, Billy Crudup as Septimus Hodge, Jennifer Dundas as Thomasina Coverly, Victor Garber as Bernard Nightingale, Paul Giamatti as Ezra Chater, John Griffin as Gus/Augustus, Robert Sean Leonard as Valentine Coverly, Peter Maloney as Richard Noakes, David Manis as Captain Brice and Haviland Morris as Chloë Coverly. Here is a look at that original staging, directed by Trevor Nunn:
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Arcadia, according to producers, "is set in April 1809 in a stately home in Derbyshire. Thomasina, a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory, beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. Two hundred years later, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809, in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth."
The new production features Crudup as Bernard Nightingale, Raúl Esparza (Company, The Homecoming) as Valentine Coverlyk, Margaret Colin (Old Acquaintance) as Lady Croom, Glenn Fleshler (Spring Awakening) as Captain Brice, Grace Gummer (Much Ado About Nothing) as Chloë Coverly, Edward James Hyland (Festen) as Jellaby, Byron Jennings (The Merchant of Venice) as Richard Noakes, Bel Powley (Tusk Tusk) as Thomasina Coverly, Tom Riley (Hurts Given and Received) as Septimus Hodge, Noah Robbins (Brighton Beach Memoirs, Secrets of the Trade) as Gus Coverly/Augustus Coverly, David Turner (The Invention of Love) as Ezra Chater and Lia Williams (Skylight, The Homecoming) as Hannah Jarvis. For tickets visit Telecharge. The Barrymore Theatre is located at 243 West 47th Street.
