Maggie Smith to Return to London Stage in Albee's Dubuque

By Andrew Gans
and John Nathan
August 30, 2006

Dame Maggie Smith will star in the London revival of Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque.

The New York Times reports that the celebrated actress will play Elizabeth in the Albee work, the role that was created by the late Irene Worth when Dubuque played 20 performances at Broadway's Morosco Theatre in 1980.

Anthony Page will direct the production, which, the Times says, is scheduled to begin previews in February 2007 at a theatre to be announced. Robert Fox and Elizabeth I. McCann will produce the play about "three young couples at a party and the odd pair that visits."

Page directed the acclaimed New York revival of Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starring Kathleen Turner and Tony winner Bill Irwin. He also directed double Oscar winner Smith in Albee’s Three Tall Women at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre, also produced by Fox.

British actress Maggie Smith won a Tony Award for her most recent Broadway appearance, Lettice and Lovage, and her other Main Stem credits include Night and Day (Tony nomination), Private Lives and New Faces of 1956. She won Academy Awards for her performances in "California Suite" and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and was also Oscar-nominated for her roles in "Gosford Park," "A Room with a View," "Travels with My Aunt" and "Othello."