In the summer of 2001, around the time he was assembling the headline grabbing production of The Seagull in Central Park, director Mike Nichols was announced to direct a starry mounting of William Nicholson's Retreat from Moscow at Off-Broadway's Promenade Theatre. Reports had Anthony Hopkins, Sinead Cusack and Ralph Fiennes starring in the piece. By fall 2001, Nichols had disattached himself from the project and the plans fell apart. But, it appears there is still hope for a Manhattan viewing of Moscow. A new staging directed by Daniel Sullivan is aiming at a fall debut in Gotham, possibly on Broadway. The director told Playbill On- Line (Jan. 16) that he is now in the process of casting.

The perpetually-employed Sullivan is currently on the road with a Broadway-bound version of Herb Gardner's I'm Not Rappaport and will helm Paul Osborn's Morning's at Seven at Lincoln Center Theater this spring. Other recent credits include Major Barbara on Broadway and Jon Robin Baitz's Ten Unknowns.

Moscow is about a couple whose marriage is falling apart, and the son who is trying to keep them together. Nicholson is the author of Shadowlands, which had a Broadway production starring Nigel Hawthorne and Jane Alexander.