Frank Langella to Return to Broadway in Terence Rattigan's Man and Boy; Maria Aitken Directs

By Kenneth Jones
05 May 2011

Frank Langella
Frank Langella

Maria Aitken, whose The 39 Steps was a U.K. and Broadway hit, will direct three-time Tony Award winner Frank Langella in a fall Broadway production of Terence Rattigan's Man and Boy, Roundabout Theatre Company announced on May 5.

This year marks the centennial of English playwright Rattigan's birth. Langella (Frost/Nixon, Fortune's Fool, Seascape) will play ruthless financier Gregor Antonescu in the drama about a father reuniting with his estranged son in order to solve financial issues in a time of economic turmoil.

Additional casting and creative team will be announced. Previews will begin Sept. 9 prior to an opening of Oct. 9 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. This will be a limited engagement through Nov. 27.

Here's how Roundabout characterizes the 1963 play: "At the height of the Great Depression, ruthless financier Gregor Antonescu's (Langella) business is dangerously close to crumbling. In order to escape the wolves at his door, Gregor tracks down his estranged son Basil in the hopes of using his Greenwich Village apartment as a base to make a company-saving deal. Can this reunion help them reconcile? Or will this corrupt father use his only son as a pawn in one last power play? Man and Boy is a gripping story about family, success and what we're willing to sacrifice for both."

Rattigan's plays French Without Tears, After The Dance, Flare Path, Love In Idleness, While The Sun Shines, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, Harlequinade, Adventure Story, Who Is Sylvia?, The Deep Blue Sea, The Sleeping Prince, Separate Tables, Variation On A Theme, Ross, Man And Boy, A Bequest To The Nation, In Praise Of Love and Cause Célèbre. He died in 1977.

For information about Roundabout's 2011-12 subscription season, visit www.roundabouttheatre.org. Single tickets will be available to the general public in the summer.