Set and costume designer Rob Howell and lighting designer Hugh Vanstone, who worked on The Graduate in London, will repeat their duties in the American version, scheduled to reach Broadway March 15 for an opening April 4, 2002 at a theatre still to be announced. Chris Cronin will be the sound designer, according to a Barlow-Hartman office spokesperson.
As previously reported, the stage version of Mike Nichols' classic 1967 film The Graduate will play Baltimore, Toronto and Boston before graduating to Broadway. The three-city pre-New York tour on the London hit will begin Jan. 10 and last until March 3. The comedy stars Kathleen Turner as Mrs. Robinson, Alicia Silverstone as her daughter Elaine and Jason Biggs as Benjamin Braddock. Further casting has yet to be announced.
The Graduate will have a 10-day run at Baltimore's Mechanic Theatre, Jan. 10-20. (Turner brought her Tallulah, once promised for Broadway, to the Mechanic a couple seasons back.) The Graduate will then move on to Toronto (Jan. 23-Feb. 17) and Boston (Feb. 20-March 3).
The Graduate is written by Terry Johnson, adapted from the original novel by Charles Webb and the motion picture screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. The piece tells of a naive college graduate facing a hollow middle-class future (possibly "in plastics"). His secret dalliance with Mrs. Robinson, an older woman who seduces him, broadens his perspective but also, understandably, jeopardizes his relationship with her daughter.
Author-director Johnson also staged the London mounting, produced in the West End (and on Broadway) by John Reid and Sacha Brooks. The show opened at the Gielgud April 5, 2000. Prior to the ramping of The Graduate for Broadway, actress Turner had been promised in a solo turn, Tallulah. The "Romancing the Stone," "Body Heat" and Indiscretions actress played the elegant, heavy-lidded Tallulah Bankhead in the show, which premiered in Chichester in 1997 and enjoyed a run at FL's Coconut Grove Theatre in 1999. Silverstone is best known for the film "Clueless" and for being a "Batman" Batgirl, while Biggs starred in "American Pie."
Turner originated the Mrs. Robinson role in April 2000 and caused a sensation by dropping a towel and appearing naked, albeit briefly and in dim lighting. After Turner came Jerry Hall, Amanda Donohoe, Anne Archer and, currently, Linda Gray. The part was first made famous by Anne Bancroft.
