Swedish-born actor Peter Stormare will make his Broadway debut as Judge Brack. The cast will also include Lois Markle (Berte), Ana Reeder (Mrs. Thea Elvsted) and Helen Carey (Miss Juliane Tesman).
The new Christopher Shinn adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, the famed tale of a wife frustrated by social conventions, directed by Ian Rickson, will begin previews Jan. 6, 2009, and open Jan. 25, 2009, at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway at 227 West 42nd Street. This will be a limited engagement through March 29, 2009.
An American Express cardholder pre-sale began Oct. 29.
Rickson staged Broadway's current, acclaimed production of The Seagull.
Cerveris (who won a Best Featured Actor Tony for Roundabout's Assassins and starred in Sweeney Todd, The Who's Tommy and is in the current Road Show by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman) will play Hedda's husband, the dry academic Jorgen Tesman. Sparks (of Broadway's Take Me Out and Off-Broadway's Lady, Pumpgirl, Essential Self Defense and Finer Noble Gases) will play Ejlert Lovborg, Hedda's prey. Parker is a Best Actress Tony winner for Proof, nominee for Reckless, and star of TV's "Weeds." Off-Broadway, she starred in Dead Man's Cell Phone; How I Learned to Drive (Obie, Lucille Lortel Awards; Outer Critics Circle nomination); Communicating Doors; Four Dogs and a Bone; The Art of Success; Babylon Gardens. Her films include "The Spiderwick Chronicles"; "The Assassination of Jesse James"; "Fried Green Tomatoes"; "Grand Canyon"; "Boys on the Side"; "The Client"; "Naked in New York"; "Bullets Over Broadway"; "Longtime Companion"; "Saved!" and more. She is a two-time Emmy Award nominee for "Weeds," for which she won a Golden Globe.
Swedish-born actor-director Stormare recently wrapped production on feature films "The Killing Room" with Chloe Sevigny, "Straight Edge, Insanitarium" for Screen Gems, and "Horsemen" for Mandate Pictures. He can be seen opposite Willem Dafoe in "Anamorph" and "Witless Protection" with Larry the Cable Guy, which were both released this year. He also starred in "Premonition" with Sandra Bullock, "Unknown," "The Brothers Grimm" opposite Matt Damon, "Constantine" with Keanu Reeves and "Birth" with Nicole Kidman. Stormare starred as John Abruzzi on the first season of the hit Fox television drama "Prison Break." He began his acting career in his native land at the Royal National Theater of Sweden under the direction of the legendary Ingmar Bergman where he performed leading roles in Long Day's Journey Into Night, Miss Julie, King Lear and Hamlet.
Markle's credits include Broadway's True West, The Grapes of Wrath, Something Old, Something New, A Warm Body, Calculated Risk, Off-Broadway's Curse of the Starving Class, The Middle Ages, Measure for Measure and the national tour of Three Tall Women.
Reeder's work includes Top Girls, Sight Unseen (Broadway), Living Room in Africa (Edge Theatre Company), The Wooden Breeks (MCC), Hedda Gabler (New York Theatre Workshop), Small Tragedy (Playwrights Horizons, Obie award), Humble Boy, An Experiment with an Air Pump (MTC), The Time of the Cuckoo (Lincoln Center), Some Voices (The New Group) and more.
Carey made her Roundabout Broadway debut in London Assurance (Tony nomination and the Theater World Award). Also at Roundabout, she appeared in Pygmalion, Hotel Suites, Give Me Your Answer, Do!
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The design team includes Hildegard Bechtler (sets), Ann Roth (costumes), Natasha Katz (lights), John Gromada (sound).
According to Roundabout, in "this new interpretation of Henrik Ibsen's modern classic," Hedda is "a woman of dangerous independence restrained by a conventional marriage. [She] indulges in a cruel game, amusing herself with the misfortune she inflicts on those around her. As Hedda struggles to balance her wild desires against her chosen life, she sets into motion a manic chain of events that bring her story to a chilling end."
Roundabout Theatre Company has produced a number of Henrik Ibsen's plays including Hedda Gabler (1994, Broadway), An Enemy of the People (1985), The Master Builder (1983), Hedda Gabler (1981), Little Eyolf (1979), John Gabriel Borkman (1976), Rosmersholm (1974) and The Master Builder (1971).
Adaptor Shinn was born in Hartford, CT, and lives in New York. His plays have been premiered by the Royal Court, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, South Coast Rep, and Soho Theatre. He is a winner of an Obie Award in Playwriting, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting. He has received grants from the NEA/TCG Residency Program and the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and he is recipient of the Robert S. Chesley Award. He teaches playwriting at the New School for Drama.
Tickets are available exclusively to American Express Card members online at Broadway.Yahoo.com, by phone at (212) 719-1300, or at the American Airlines Box Office (227 West 42nd Street). Ticket prices range from $66.50 to $111.50.
Public on-sale begins Nov. 15 by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the American Airlines box office. Through ACCESS Roundabout, 100 tickets will be available for the first preview performance (Jan. 6, 2009) for only $10 each.
