Jeffrey Finn Productions with Stuart Thompson Productions will present two-time Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee James Earl Jones (Fences, The Great White Hope) in his eagerly-awaited return to the Broadway stage, starring opposite Tony Award winner Leslie Uggams (Hallelujah, Baby!, King Hedley II) in a new production of Academy Award-winning Ernest Thompson's beloved play On Golden Pond. Directed by Leonard Foglia (Master Class), the open-ended production will begin performances on March 22, 2005, with an opening night of April 7 at The Cort Theatre, 138 W. 48th Street.

This new production premiered at The Kennedy Center (Sept. 28-Oct. 17), followed by an engagement at The DuPont Theatre in Wilmington (Oct. 22-31). The producers note "this path ironically followed the original 1979 production's pre-Broadway journey from The Kennedy Center to The DuPont (then named The Playhouse) before opening on Broadway." The lauded production of what's billed as a "family classic" will transfer to New York intact with the same cast and creative team.

"I am honored to bring the legendary James Earl Jones back to Broadway, paired with Leslie Uggams, in On Golden Pond,," said producer Jeffrey Finn. "Our recent engagement at The Kennedy Center was a great success and we're looking forward to New York seeing our new production of this family classic."

Finn produced the premiere at The Kennedy Center and is joined by Stuart Thompson in New York.

"In On Golden Pond, retired New England professor Norman Thayer and his spirited wife Ethel decide to spend one final summer at their family's lakeside cottage in Maine. En route to a European honeymoon, the couple’s estranged daughter Chelsea arrives to leave behind her fiancé’s troubled young son. Colliding generations soon forge common ground, but when Chelsea returns to discover Norman playing the father she never had, years of bitter memories and resentment rise to the surface. An intimate family drama laced with humor and heart, On Golden Pond explores growing up, growing old and growing closer."

The production features set design Ray Klausen, costume design by 13-time Tony Award nominee Jane Greenwood (The Heiress, The Sisters Rosensweig), lighting design by Tony Award nominee Brian Nason (Metamorphosis with Mikhail Baryshnikov) and sound design and original music by Dan Moses Schreier (the recent Broadway production of Assassins, the upcoming Gem of the Ocean).

On Golden Pond was first presented for a limited run of 36 performances at New York’s Hudson Guild Theatre, starring Tom Aldredge and Frances Sternhagen, opening Sept. 13, 1978. The production played a pre Broadway engagement at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater in January 1979, followed by an engagement at The Playhouse in Wilmington, prior to opening on Broadway at The New Apollo Theatre on Feb. 28, 1979 for 126 performances. A return New York engagement at The Century Theatre opened Sept. 12, 1979 for an additional 424 performances.

The acclaimed 1981 film version starring Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda and Dabney Coleman was nominated for nine 1982 Academy Awards, winning three for Fonda, Hepburn and author Ernest Thompson for the screenplay he adapted from his own play.

The performance schedule for On Golden Pond will be Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 PM with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 PM and Sundays at 3 PM.

Complete information on ticketing through Tele-Charge, including on-sale dates, will be announced in the coming weeks.