Brian Dennehy Reprises Off-Broadway Role in Trumbo for Boston, Feb. 8-March 6 | Playbill

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News Brian Dennehy Reprises Off-Broadway Role in Trumbo for Boston, Feb. 8-March 6 Brian Dennehy begins his Boston run as Trumbo in the Huntington Theatre Company staging of the homage to the blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.
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Dalton Trumbo

Peter Askin directs the work which will perform at the Virginia Wimberly Theatre in the Theatre Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts for a run — recently extended due to high ticket demand — through March 6.

Christopher Trumbo, son of the work's focal character, culled the play from the letters of the legendary blacklisted screenwriter. Trumbo tells the story of one of the "Hollywood Ten" who went before the House Un-American Activities Committee. After refusing to answer questions about his political affiliations, Trumbo was fired from MGM and imprisoned for a year.

Dennehy reprises the title role in Trumbo which he previously played Off Broadway. The actor won a 2003 Tony Award for his performance in Long Day's Journey Into Night and has appeared on Broadway in Translations and another Tony-winning turn in Death of a Salesman.

William Zielinski plays opposite Dennehy in the role of Christopher Trumbo. A Philadelphia-based actor (native to Long Island), he has appeared in Trumbo (with Bill Irwin at the Philadelphia Theatre Company), Don Juan in Nirvana (New Paradise Laboratories), Northeast Local (Arden Theatre Company) and Indian Ink (The Wilma Theater).

Director Askin (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Sexaholix... a love story) — who directed the Off-Broadway staging — returns to stage the work which has its lead actor reading from a script mostly seated at a desk. The words of Trumbo echo upon subjects as serious as injustice tempered with a lighthearted letter to his son doling advice on masturbation. The Narrator fills out the storyline with biographical details between scenes — as do film projections including actual footage from the HUAC hearings. Trumbo played Off-Broadway with Nathan Lane in the title role with successive stints featuring F. Murray Abraham, Gore Vidal, Richard Dreyfuss, Roger Rees, Robert Loggia, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Richards and Chris Cooper. Gordon McDonald played in the show's other role of Narrator/Christopher.

Dalton Trumbo wrote such screenplays as "Exodus," "Spartacus," "Roman Holiday" and "Papillon" as well as the novel "Johnny Got His Gun." The homage addresses the Oscar he never won for "The Brave One" — penned under the pseudonym Robert Rich.

Tickets to Trumbo at Huntington in Boston, MA, are available by calling (617) 266-0800. For more information, visit www.huntingtontheatre.org.

 
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