By Robert Simonson
26 Oct 2009

Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson
photo by Aubrey Reuben; Patrick Demarchelier

Tony Award-winner Liev Schreiber and film starlet Scarlett Johansson will star in a new Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge at the Cort Theatre. Performances begin Dec. 28, 2009, with an official opening of Jan. 24, 2010. The limited engagement will run for 14 weeks only.

The production, which will be directed by Gregory Mosher, had been the source of speculation for weeks. Schreiber will play Eddie Carbone, the role played by Anthony LaPaglia in the play's most recent revival in 1997; LaPaglia, in fact, won a Tony for his performance. Johannsson will play Carbone's niece Catherine, with whom Carbone is obsessed.

The play will be produced by Stuart Thompson and The Araca Group. Additional producers include Jeffrey Finn, Sonia Friedman, The Weinstein Company and Olympus Theatricals.

The creative team will include John Lee Beatty (Scenic Design), Jane Greenwood (Costume Design), Peter Kaczorowski (Lighting Design), and Scott Lehrer (Sound Design).

The play, according to press notes for the recent London revival, revolves around "dockworker Eddie Carbone who has made a good life for himself and his wife Beatrice in 1950s Brooklyn. As a former immigrant himself, Eddie is happy to house and protect his wife's Italian cousins who arrive illegally in pursuit of the 'American Dream.' What Eddie doesn't know is that this act of kindness will have a shattering effect on his whole life, and the lives of those he loves, when his feelings for his niece Catherine develop from paternal protectiveness to sexual desire. His struggle to contain his emotions leads him on a path of self destruction transforming him from a respected, honourable man to a virtual stranger shamed and broken by his own actions. The play explores jealousy, betrayal, suspicion and ultimately loss of control."

Liev Schreiber earned a 2005 Tony Award for Glengarry Glenn Ross. He has appeared on Broadway in Talk Radio (Tony nomination), Betrayal and In the Summer House. He has also appeared in the Public Theater presentations of Macbeth, Henry V, Othello, Hamlet, Cymbeline and The Tempest. His screen roles include "Defiance," "Lackawanna Blues," "The Manchurian Candidate," "Hamlet," "Big Night" and the "Scream" films. He will be seen in the forthcoming Ang Lee film "Taking Woodstock" as well as "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

Johansson, who will be making her Broadway debut, has starred in such films as "Lost in Translation," "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Ghost World."