Spider Woman Is Heading to Broadway

By Andrew Gans
May 1, 2008

A non-musical version of Kiss of the Spider Woman is heading to Broadway.

A 1983 play adaptation of the classic Manuel Puig novel will arrive on The Great White Way next season, according to a press notice. The production — at a theatre to be announced — will feature direction by Peter DuBois. DuBois, the artistic director of the Boston-based Huntington Theatre Company, recently staged Jack Goes Boating Off-Broadway.

Kiss of the Spider Woman has only graced Broadway in musical form: The 1993 Kander and Ebb musical — starring Chita Rivera, Brent Carver and Anthony Crivello — earned the Tony for Best Musical. The story of two strikingly different cellmates in an Argentinean prison — Molina and Valentín — was also the subject of the 1985 film "Kiss of the Spider Woman" starring Raul Julia and William Hurt.

The upcoming Broadway production will feature an adaptation penned by Allan Baker, which was seen at London's Bush Theatre in 1985 and at the Donmar Warehouse in April 2007. The Donmar production — directed by Charlotte Westenra — co-starred Rupert Evans and Will Keen.

Darren Bagert (Company, Sweeney Todd) will produce the Broadway run, which is aiming for a Broadway bow in late fall. Casting is currently underway for the two-hander.