Turner-Irwin Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Begins London Life Jan. 20

By Robert Simonson
and John Nathan
20 Jan 2006

Kathleen Turner in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
Kathleen Turner in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
Photo by Carol Rosegg

Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin will return to Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Jan. 20, when the Tony-nominated revival makes its West End debut at the Apollo. Opening is Jan. 31.

The transfer will feature the entire Broadway cast. In addition to Turner as Martha and Bill Irwin, who won a Tony for playing George, the ensemble includes David Harbour and Mireille Enos as Nick and Honey.

The Broadway revival opened March 20, 2005 and closed Sept. 5 after 8 previews and 177 performances.

The West End last saw Edward Albee's 1962 classic in 1996 in a production that starred David Suchet and Diana Rigg as the husband and wife locked in a love-hate marriage.

The transfer means the West End will be hosting two Anthony Page productions at the same time, both of them American classics. The director's revival of Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana starring Woody Harrelson and Clare Higgins, opened Dec. 5, just next door to the Apollo on Shaftesbury Avenue.

Turner made her West End debut in 2000 playing Mrs Robinson in Terry Johnson’s stage adaptation of "The Graduate." The Hollywood actress' movie career peaked in the eighties and early nineties with films such as "The War of the Roses," "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Prizzi’s Honor."

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is produced by Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer.