Schwimmer and Ivanek to Star in Caine Mutiny Revival; Performances Begin in April

By Andrew Gans
08 Dec 2005

David Schwimmer
David Schwimmer

"Friends" star David Schwimmer will make his Broadway debut in the upcoming revival of Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.

Schwimmer will play Lt. Barney Greenwald in the courtroom drama, which will begin performances April 14, 2006, at a Shubert Theatre to be announced with an official opening set for May 7. Zeljko Ivanek, most recently on Broadway in The Pillowman, will co-star as Lt. Com. Philip Francis Queeg. Jerry Zaks will direct.

The creative team for the production will include John Lee Beatty (set design), William Ivey Long (costume design), Paul Gallo (lighting design) and Peter Fitzgerald (sound design).

Producers are Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Debra Black.

A co-founder of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, David Schwimmer's theatrical credits there include The Master and Margarita, West, The Jungle, Eye of the Beholder, The Odyssey, The Idiot and RACE: How Blacks And Whites Think And Feel About The American Obsession. The actor has also appeared in Glimmer Brothers, and he made his London debut in Neil LaBute's Some Girls. Schwimmer's many screen credits include "Duane Hopwood," "Band of Brothers," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Uprising," "Six Days Seven Nights," "Apt Pupil," "The Pallbearer" and "Friends," earning an Emmy nomination for his work in the latter.

Zeljko Ivanek received Tony nominations for his performances in Two Shakespearean Actors and Brighton Beach Memoirs and a Drama Desk Award for his work in Cloud 9. His other theatrical credits include The Pillowman, The Glass Menagerie, Loot, The Survivor, The Cherry Orchard and A Map of the World as well as the London mounting of bash. Ivanek's many screen credits include "Dogville," "Black Hawk Down," "Hannibal," "Unfaithful," "Dancer in the Dark," "Donnie Brasco," "The West Wing," "24," "Oz" and "Homicide: Life on the Street."

Jerry Zaks has helmed more than 30 New York productions, earning Tony Awards for his direction of Six Degrees of Separation, Guys and Dolls, House of Blue Leaves and Lend Me a Tenor.

Playwright Wouk debuted The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial on Broadway in 1954 (the book also served as the basis for the 1954 Humphrey Bogart film). The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial pits Lieutenant Stephen Maryk against Lieutenant Commander Queeg as Maryk relieves his minesweeper commander of duty after deciding Queeg has become too mentally unstable to pilot their World War II vehicle, the USS Caine. He is accused of mutiny and put on trial by the Navy. It is at the trial that The Caine Mutiny Court Martial takes place. Wouk's eleven novels include "The Winds of War," "War and Remembrance" and "Marjorie Morningstar."

The original Broadway production played 415 performances at the Plymouth Theatre. The cast featured Henry Fonda (Lt. Barney Greenwald), John Hodiak (Lt. Stephen Maryk) and Lloyd Nolan (Lt. Com. Philip Francis Queeg).