The old Agatha Christie chestnut And Then There Were None, also known as Ten Little Indians, may be headed for Broadway this season, under the auspices of producer Liz McCann. As first reported by Newsday and confirmed by McCann (Sept. 15), the producer secured the rights to the murder mystery while recently in London. Talks are currently underway to enlist the skills of hot director, Michael Mayer (A View From the Bridge, Side Man, Stupid Kids).
The thriller, which is based on a Christie novel and long a staple of community theatre, has ten people die one by one while attending a stylish party.
The show is one of many potential Broadway properties for the busy McCann. She recently announced plans to bring Art playwright Yasmina Reza's The Unexpected Man to Broadway this fall, or possibly next spring. She also told Newsday there were plans in the spring for a major Broadway revival of an Edward Albee work, "Maybe Seascape, maybe Tiny Alice." Most probably, it will be Alice, which did well in its recent revival at CT's Hartford Stage. As previously reported, McCann and Daryl Roth, who teamed up on Off Broadway's Albee hit Three Tall Women, are producing the Broadway mounting of Alice, which is targeting a February 1999 opening.
McCann told Variety theatres being considered for Tiny Alice include the John Golden, the Helen Hayes and the Walter Kerr. Roth told Playbill On-Line (Aug. 6) that nothing's officially set yet on the show, and that casting hasn't been announced, since not all the Hartford Stage performers will move with the production. Tiny Alice ended its run at Hartford Stage June 21, 1998.
As with Art, the London production of The Unexpected Man was directed by Matthew Warchus, translated from the French by Christopher Hampton, and designed by Mark Thompson. The 80-minute, one-act work is about a famous author and a lifelong fan who meet on a train bound from Paris to Frankfurt. McCann said she hoped to bring over the play's London stars, Michael Gambon and Eileen Atkins. Atkins last appeared in New York in the Broadway production of Jean Cocteau's Indiscretions, for which she won a Tony nomination. Gambon's last appearance on Broadway, in David Hare's Skylight, stirred up a fuss when Actors' Equity temporarily halted the actor's visit by questioning whether Gambon qualified as an established star under the actor exchange rules between the union and British Equity. They later decided he qualified.
-- By Robert Simonson
