By Adam Hetrick
09 Jan 2008

Rufus Sewell in Rock 'n' Roll.
photo by Joan Marcus

The limited engagement of Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll will play its final performance at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre March 9; there will be no extension.

Following a sold-out run in London — where the work received the London Evening Standard and London Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Best New Play — Rock 'n' Roll transferred with its original West End principal cast to Broadway on Oct. 19, 2007. The production officially opened at the Jacobs Nov. 4.

Rufus Sewell – who earned the Olivier, Evening Standard and London Critics' Circle awards for his performance – stars opposite his original West End counterparts Brian Cox (Max), Sinead Cusack (Eleanor/Esme (Older), Nicole Ansari (Lenka) and Alice Eve (Esme (Younger)/Alice).

The American actors cast for the Broadway run feature Brian Avers (Stephen), Mary Bacon (Gillian/Magda/Deirdre), Seth Fisher (The Piper/Policeman), Stephen Kunken (Ferdinand), Quentin Mare (Nigel/Interrogator), Ken Marks (Milan/Waiter), Alexandra Neil (Candida), Anna O’Donoghue (Pupil), Joseph Collins, Angela Reed and Joe Vincent.

Four-time Tony Award winner Trevor Nunn directed Rock 'n' Roll for Broadway, repeating his West End duties. The creative team features set design by Robert Jones, costume design by Emma Ryott, lighting design by Howard Harrison and sound design by Ian Dickinson.

"It's August 1968, and Russian tanks are rolling in to Prague," press notes state. "Jan, the Czech student, lives for rock music, Max, the English professor, lives for Communism and Esme, the flower child, is high. By 1990, the tanks are rolling out, the Stones are rolling in and idealism has hit the wall. A deeply felt look at the connection between rock music and revolution, Stoppard's sweeping and witty play spans two countries, three generations and twenty-two turbulent years, at the end of which love remains - and so does rock 'n' roll."

The production features a soundtrack that boasts some of rock 'n' roll's most influential artists, including John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Plastic People of the Universe, Velvet Underground, the Grateful Dead, U2 and the Beach Boys.

Tom Stoppard is a four-time Tony Award winner for his plays The Coast of Utopia, The Real Thing, Travesties and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His works for the stage also include Arcadia, The Invention of Love, Jumpers, Artist Descending a Staircase and Night and Day. Stoppard won an Academy Award for his screenplay for "Shakespeare in Love."

Tickets are currently available by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com.

Rock 'n' Roll is produced on Broadway by Bob Boyett & Sonia Friedman Productions, Ostar Productions, Roger Berlind, Tulchin/Bartner, Douglas G. Smith, Dancap Productions, Jam Theatricals, and The Weinstein Company, in association with Lincoln Center Theater.

For more information visit www.RocknRollThePlay.com.