Multimedia Email this Article Printer-friendly RELATED ARTICLES: 09 Dec 2005 -- Leaping Lizard! 26 Nov 2005 -- Edward Albee to Talk About Seascape at Lincoln Center on Dec. 7 22 Nov 2005 -- PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Seascape: Speakin' Lizards! 21 Nov 2005 -- PLAYBILL ARCHIVES: Seascape — 1975 28 Oct 2005 -- Albee's Seascape to Wash Ashore at the Booth on Oct. 28

By Robert Simonson
21 Nov 2005

Frances Sternhagen and George Grizzard Seascape.
photo by Joan Marcus

Not your average day at the beach is depicted in Edward Albee's Seascape, the first Broadway revival of which opens at the Booth Theatre on Nov. 21. Mark Lamos directs the Lincoln Center Theater production.

Previews began on Oct. 28 for a couple of humans—played by George Grizzard (who was the original Nick in Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and won a Tony for the 1996 revival of A Delicate Balance) and Frances Sternhagen (most recently on Broadway in Steel Magnolias)—and a pair of lizards—impersonated by Elizabeth Marvel (Hedda Gabler), and Frederick Weller (part of the recent Tony-winning Glengarry Glen Ross revival).

Albee's pastoral title conceals a starkly expressionistic drama which takes place on a deserted stretch of beach, where retired couple Charlie and Nancy are strolling and talking about their future. With the arrival of another duo, Leslie and Sarah—who happen to be green, cold-blooded quadrupeds—the conversation takes on a more far-reaching tenor.

Lamos directed the work at Hartford Stage in 2002. Grizzard also starred in that mounting. His co-stars at the time were Pamela Payton-Wright, David Patrick Kelly and Annalee Jefferies.

The production will mark the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama's first Broadway revival since its 1975 premiere. The production, directed by Albee, lasted only 63 performances, but it did introduce Broadway audiences to Frank Langella, who won a Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Play. The production also starred Deborah Kerr, Barry Nelson and Maureen Anderman. (Take a look inside the original Playbill with the Playbill Archives feature.)

Frances Sternhagen and George Grizzard Seascape.
photo by Joan Marcus

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