Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan will plant its feet in Manhattan once more, this time on Broadway in spring of 2002. The drama first played New York in an Off-Broadway production at the Public Theater several seasons back, shortly after McDonaugh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane struck gold at the Atlantic Theatre Company and transferred to a commercial Broadway run.

Now, Cripple is getting its own run at Broadway. Producer Randall Wreghitt told Playbill On-Line he is bringing the drama to the Great White Way in spring. If all works out, Garry Hynes, who piloted Beauty Queen to success, will direct. No cast has been named.

The story centers on the making of the 1934 film, "Man of Aran," shot by American director Robert Flaherty on location around Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands off Ireland's west coast. When the Hollywood director arrives, the people of neighboring Inishmaan, including physically disabled Billy, are aroused with dreams of escape from a provincial life. Billy's Hollywood screen test and his return spark the village.

McDonagh's The Lonesome West also had a run on Broadway, albeit a brief one. His A Skull in Connemara was stages by the Roundabout Theatre Company earlier this year.

Wreghitt produced both Beauty Queen and Lonesome West. —By Robert Simonson