Shanley's Doubt Gets the Benefit of Broadway March 9

By Robert Simonson
09 Mar 2005

Cherry Jones in Doubt
Cherry Jones in Doubt
Photo by Joan Marcus

John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, arguably the most praised play of the 2004-05 New York season, will begin previews at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre March 9 toward a March 31 opening.

Doubt received its premiere Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club on Nov. 3. It opened Nov. 23 and quickly won the approval of the critics, as well as an extension.

Carole Shorenstein Hays, Manhattan Theatre Club, Roger Berlind and Scott Rudin are the producing partners of the Broadway run.

The drama set in a Bronx Catholic school in the 1960s, where a headstrong nun squares off against a popular priest she suspects of wrongdoing. The cast and creative team of the acclaimed MTC staging repeat their duties for the commercial run. Doug Hughes directs Cherry Jones as Sister Aloysius and Brķan F. O'Byrne as Father Flynn, Heather Goldenhersh as Sister James and Adriane Lenox as Mrs. Muller.

Hughes directed O'Byrne to a Tony Award (and himself to a Tony nomination) in last season's Frozen.

Cherry Jones' long Broadway career goes back to 1987's Stepping Out. She won a Tony Award for The Heiress and nominations for Our Country's Good and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Her Off Broadway resume is even longer, including such plays as The Baltimore Waltz, Desdemona, Flesh and Blood, Pride's Crossing, Goodnight Desdemona/Goodmorning Juliet and And Baby Makes Seven.

The production is a rare, non-musical credit for Lenox, whose assignments have included Caroline, or Change, Kiss Me Kate and The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm. For Goldenhersh (Last Dance, The Underpants, Goodnight Children, Everywhere), meanwhile, Doubt represents her Broadway debut.

This is the first time a work by the prolific Shanley (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Beggars in the House of Plenty, Four Dogs and a Bone "Moonstruck") will be seen on Broadway.

Set design is by John Lee Beatty, costume design is by Catherine Zuber, lighting design is by Pat Collins, original music and sound design is by David Van Tieghem.

The performance schedule is Tuesday through Saturday at 8 PM, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2 PM, and Sunday at 3 PM.

Visit www.DoubtOnBroadway.com.