Following its current run through March 19 at the Acorn Theatre, the acclaimed production will reopen April 4 at the 499-seat theatre at 37 Arts, which is located at 450 West 37th Street.
There had been talk that Hurlyburly might find its way to a Broadway theatre as it did 20 years ago when the original production moved from Off-Broadway to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in August 1984.
The decision to stay Off-Broadway this time around was based largely on finances, producers Jeffrey Seller and Kevin McCollum told the New York Times. Said Seller: "If you actually look at the rate of return for all the Broadway revivals of the last couple of seasons, even the successful ones don't make much money. They play their 12 weeks and they call it a day."
According to the producers, a 12-week run Off-Broadway will cost $650,000 to produce; a similar Broadway stay would require $1.8 million. The current company, which includes Ethan Hawke, Wallace Shawn, Parker Posey, Bobby Cannavale, Josh Hamilton, Catherine Kellner and Halley Wegryn Gross, has agreed to play a minimum of 12 weeks at the new 37 Arts.
Interspersed with 80's music (Talking Heads, Queen and David Bowie) and occasional glimpses of the world through the set's pre-remote-controlled television ("The Smurfs," "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson"), Rabe's revised drama follows the lives of four men working the Hollywood machine. The quartet pontificate on their ex-wives, friendships and work while enduring life through vices (drugs, alcohol and women). The New Group artistic diretor Scott Elliott directs. Hurlyburly originally ran Off-Broadway in 1984 with Mike Nichols directing a cast that included William Hurt, Judith Ivey, Harvey Keitel, Cynthia Nixon, Ron Silver, Jerry Stiller and Sigourney Weaver. The work then transferred to Broadway garnering four Tony nominations (with one win for Ivey). Rabe later adapted it for the screen for the 1998 film starring Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Anna Paquin, Meg Ryan, Chazz Palminteri and Robin Wright Penn.
Tickets to Hurlyburly at The New Group's home at Theatre Row, 410 West 42 St., are available by calling (212) 279-4200. Ticket information for the run at 37 Arts will be announced shortly.
