Marian Seldes will be lending a helping hand to the Lincoln Center Theatre production of Jean Anouilh's 1947 classic Ring Round the Moon. On Saturday matinees during the run, which goes from Apr. 1 to June 27, Seldes will play Madame Desmermortes, the role which will normally be filled by Irene Worth.
Seldes' vast theatre credits include the original U.S. productions of Three Tall Women, A Delicate Balance and Deathtrap. For LCT, she appeared in Ivanov last season with Kevin Kline.
Also in the cast of Ring Round the Moon are English actor Toby Stephens, Simon Jones, Frances Conroy, Candy Buckley, Richard Clarke, Haviland Morris, Derek Smith, Francie Swift, Joyce Van Patten and Fritz Weaver.
Ring Round The Moon concerns twins brothers and the old woman who tries to control them. Stephens will play twins in the drama, while Worth will be the old aunt.
Jones was last seen on Broadway in the short-lived The Herbal Bed. Conroy received rave reviews for her performance in Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mt. Morgan at the Public Theatre last fall. (That production, with Conroy and Patrick Stewart in it, may return to Broadway this coming autumn, Miller has told Playbill On-Line.) Buckley's credits include Defying Gravity and The Petrified Prince, both Off-Broadway. Veteran Weaver's credits stretch back four decades. He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in The Chalk Garden and has appeared in such productions as The Crucible and, more recently, The Professional at Circle Rep in 1995.
Worth's career spans 50 years. She won a Tony Award for both Tiny Alice and Lost in Yonkers, as well as a 1975-76 revival of Sweet Bird of Youth. Off-Broadway work included a Public Theatre staging of Coriolanus, opposite Morgan Freeman.
Stephens who recently essayed roles in visiting productions of two Racine plays -- Phedre and Brittanicus -- at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Anouilh was last represented on Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Rehearsal, starring Francis Conroy and Roger Rees. His other plays included Antigone, The Cry of the Peacock, and The Waltz of the Toreadors
Tickets to the Moon go on sale Mar. 14 via telecharge, (212) 239 6200. The box office opens Mar. 15 at the Belasco.
