Debra Winger to Join Patti LuPone for Broadway Run of David Mamet's The Anarchist

By Adam Hetrick
05 Jun 2012

Debra Winger
Debra Winger

Three-time Academy Award nominee Debra Winger will make her Broadway debut opposite two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone in the world premiere of David Mamet's two-woman drama The Anarchist, this fall, representatives for the production confirmed to Playbill.com.

Winger ("Terms of Endearment," "Shadowlands," "An Officer and a Gentleman") replaces the previously announced Laurie Metcalf (November, Detroit), who withdrew from the production due to a scheduling conflict.

Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Howard and Janet Kagan are producing the production that is aiming to begin Broadway previews Nov. 13 with a Dec. 2 opening night at a Shubert theatre to be announced. Tony-winning playwright Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna, Speed-the-Plow) will direct.

Set in a female penitentiary, the two-woman drama casts LuPone (Evita, Gypsy) as Cathy, a longtime inmate with ties to a violent political organization, who pleads for parole from the warden, Ann, to now be played by Winger.

According to the producers, the play centers on "politics, money, religion and sex." 

LuPone has a long history with Mamet. The two first worked together on his drama The Woods in 1977. LuPone's Mamet appearances also include The Water Engine, Edmond, The Old Neighborhood and the film "State and Main."