Mary-Louise Parker Will Return to Broadway in Hedda Gabler Revival

By Andrew Gans
and Ernio Hernandez
11 Aug 2008

Mary Louise Parker
Mary Louise Parker
Photo by Showtime/Mark Seliger

The Roundabout Theatre Company will present a Broadway revival of Hedda Gabler — starring Tony Award winner Mary-Louise Parker — in January 2009 at the American Airlines Theatre.

Directed by Ian Rickson — who will also helm the upcoming Broadway revival of The Seagull — the limited engagement will feature an adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen classic penned by Christopher Shinn. Previews are scheduled to begin Jan. 6, 2009, with an official opening Jan. 25.

Additional cast members and the design team will be announced at a later date.

In Hedda Gabler, press notes state,"the newly-wed Hedda Tesman finds herself bored with married life to her scholar husband, George Tesman. As the daughter of General Gabler, she had grown accustomed to the freedom and exciting social world of her father's home. When her rival, Mrs. Elvsted, reenters her life with Hedda’s former lover, Eilert Lovberg in tow, Hedda sets out on a shocking path of destruction that affects the lives of everyone around her."

Mary-Louise Parker, last seen on the Broadway stage in the revival of Reckless, earned a Tony Award for her role in David Auburn's Proof. She was most recently seen on the New York stage Off-Broadway in Dead Man's Cell Phone at Playwrights Horizons. Other credits include Bus Stop, Communicating Doors, How I Learned to Drive, Four Dogs and a Bone, The Art of Success and The Age of Pie. Parker earned an Emmy Award for her role in the HBO adaptation of Angels in America and also appeared on "The West Wing." Her award-winning series, "Weeds," continues on the Showtime cable network. Parker's film work includes "Saved!," "Boys on the Side," "Red Dragon," "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Bullets Over Broadway" and more.

Hedda Gabler has been presented on Broadway over a dozen times. The most recent revival — September 2001-January 2002 — at the Ambassador Theatre cast Kate Burton in the title role. Burton was Tony-nominated for her performance.

Show times at the American Airlines Theatre will be Tuesday-Saturday evenings at 8 PM with matinees Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM.

Tickets will be available in the fall by calling (212) 719-1300, by visiting www.roundabouttheatre.org or by heading to the American Airlines theatre box office (227 West 42nd Street).

*

The Roundabout's upcoming season will also include Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, starring Frank Langella and directed by Doug Hughes; Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, starring Stockard Channing, Christian Hoff and Martha Plimpton and directed by Joe Mantello; David Rabe's Streamers, directed by Scott Ellis; Lisa Loomer's Distracted, starring Cynthia Nixon and directed by Mark Brokaw; Bob Fosse's Dancin'; and Steven Levenson's The Language of Trees, directed by Alex Timbers.