When Street Corner Symphony ends its Broadway run, the Brooks Atkinson Theatre will go Dark. Not dark as in vacant, but dark as in Wait Until Dark, a revival of Frederick Knott's 1966 thriller. Dark starts previews March 27 for an April 5 opening. Advertising for the show calls for a 16-week (124 performance) run. That would put the close sometime in late July, however; a spokesperson for Dark says the play is scheduled to run through Labor Day -- Sept. 7.
As a special promotion, the first pick of tickets will be available exclusively through Playbill On-Line, beginning Jan. 26. Then Feb. 8, tickets go onsale via TicketMaster (212) 307-4100. The Atkinson box office (256 West 47th St.) opens Feb. 23.
Quentin Tarantino, who burst onto the film scene with 1994's Pulp Fiction, stars opposite Marisa Tomei and recently announced Stephen Lang. Oscar-winner Tomei's theatre credits include Demonology at Playwrights Horizons and Slavs at NY Theatre Workshop. Lang starred in The Speed Of Darkness and A Few Good Men. Film actor/director Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs) will make his legit debut as a psychotic stalker in the revival.
The little girl will be played by African-American actress Imani Parks, who turned 13 on Jan. 8. Parks debuted in Show Boat, singing opposite Lonnette McKee, and appeared Off Broadway in a Joanne Akalaitis-directed Woyzeck at the Public Theatre. Also in the cast are Juan Hernandez and James Whalen.
The show will play a three-week tryout at Boston, MA's Wilbur Theatre. Leonard Foglia (Master Class, Circle Rep's Lonely Planet) directs. Designing Dark are Michael McGarty (sets), David C. Woolard (costumes), Brian MacDevitt (lighting) and Darron L. West (sound).
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Back in September, Knott's representatives at ICM confirmed a story in Variety that Tarantino was in negotiations with producers Alan N. Lichtenstein and Robert Young. A follow-up story in Variety (Sept. 29) noted that Jennifer Jason Leigh was in negotiations for the lead role. One day later, however, Variety reported that Leigh had begged off the project because of a previous commitment to David Cronenberg's next film. Film actress Leigh's roles include Dorothy Parker and the Vicious Circle, Last Exit To Brooklyn and Fast Times At Ridgemont High.
Young told Variety Wait Until Dark is planned as a 30-week Broadway run, with the playwright "significantly changing and updating the script." Producers Lichtenstein and Young mounted the 1996 tour of Knott's Dial M. For Murder (with Roddy McDowall and Nancy Allen) that never made it to Broadway. Joining the two producers are Gregory Young, Jon B. Platt and Liz Oliver.
Wait Until Dark concerns a menacing drug dealer terrorizing a blind woman and her pesky young next-door neighbor. Other thrillers by Knott include 1961's Write Me A Murder and 1952's Dial `M' For Murder.
