Mike Nichols has apparently decided to return to the theatre with a vengeance. This summer he is directing the Public Theater revival of The Seagull in Central Park, with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline heading an all-star cast. After that, according to Newsday, his will direct William Nicholson's Retreat from Moscow at Off-Broadway's Promenade Theatre. The production will dawn in January 2002, the paper reported. Possible to star in the piece are Anthony Hopkins and Sinead Cusack as a couple whose marriage is falling apart, and Ralph Fiennes as the son trying to keep them together. Hopkins has famously declared many times that he does not plan to return to the theatre, his primary home for the first three decades of this career. His last stage assignment was M. Butterful in London over a decade ago. Fiennes was recently seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Coriolanus and Richard II.

Nicholson, the author of Shadowlands, told Newsday that Nichols first thought of Moscow as an HBO venture, but has now agreed to stage the work first. "This is entirely about getting the best actors, doing it somewhere simple and not making a fuss," said Nichols.