EXCLUSIVE: Leveaux Will Direct Banderas in Broadway Zorba Revival

By Adam Hetrick
May 13, 2010

Five-time Tony Award-nominated director David Leveaux will direct Tony nominee Antonio Banderas in the Kander and Ebb musical Zorba, which will return to Broadway in September 2011.

A representative for the production confirmed to Playbill.com what Banderas hinted at in an interview with WENN.com. "I'm going to have a meeting here (in New York) in order to establish a date for me to come back to Broadway. And I hope that if everything goes right, I cross my fingers, that may happen in September 2011 and it will be with the musical Zorba," Banderas said.

Zorba will reunite Leveaux and Banderas, who previously collaborated on the Tony Award-winning revival of Maury Yeston's Nine in 2003. Chicago and La Cage aux Folles producers Barry and Fran Weissler are behind the project.

Based on the Nikos Kazantzakis novel "Zorba the Greek," John Kander and Fred Ebb collaborated with book writer Joseph Stein on the dark 1968 musical that was staged by Hal Prince. Herschel Bernardi originated the title role, which was later performed by Anthony Quinn in a more upbeat 1983 revival of the musical. (Quinn also starred in the 1965 film based on the novel.)

Banderas made his Broadway debut in the revival of Nine. On screen, he appeared in "Evita," as well as "Philadelphia," "Interview with the Vampire," and "Frida." He is well known for his works in the Pedro Almodovar films "Labyrinth of Passion," "Matador," "Law of Desire" and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown."

Leveaux has staged the Broadway productions of A Moon for the Misbegotten, Anna Christie, Electra, The Real Thing, Betrayal, Nine, Fiddler on the Roof, Jumpers, The Glass Menagerie and Cyrano de Bergerac.