Opening night will be March 31, 2011, at a Broadway theatre to be announced. The producers are Robyn Goodman, Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller and Center Theatre Group.
Directed by Moises Kaufman (33 Variations, The Laramie Project), the play premiered in 2009 at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre and was remounted at CTG's larger theatre in Los Angeles, the Mark Taper Forum, in spring 2010.
Williams joins the earlier cast for the New York City premiere. (Kevin Tighe played the part in L.A.) Williams previously appeared Off-Broadway opposite Steve Martin in a revival of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at Lincoln Center Theater's Off-Broadway Mitzi Newhouse Theater in 1988. Williams' previous appearance on Broadway was doing stand-up comedy in Robin Williams: Live on Broadway, July 11-14, 2002.
Bengal Tiger is billed as a "darkly comic tale narrated by a tiger held captive in the Baghdad Zoo." According to the producers, "The play follows the intertwined lives of two American marines and one Iraqi gardener as they search through the rubble of war for friendship, redemption and a toilet seat made of gold."
Joseph is an American playwright whose plays include Animals Out of Paper, which premiered at Second Stage in 2008, Huck & Holden, produced at Cherry Lane Theatre, All This Intimacy and The Leopard and the Fox. He is the recipient of the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship from the National Arts Club, and the 2008 Paula Vogel Award for emerging playwrights presented by the Vineyard Theatre. Williams began his career as a stand-up comedian and has created a repertoire of indelible characters, first in the hit series "Mork & Mindy" and then in numerous film roles. In 1997, Williams received Academy and Screen Actors Guild awards for his performance in "Good Will Hunting," having been previously nominated by the Academy for performances in "The Fisher King, Dead Poets Society" and "Good Morning Vietnam." Williams' blockbuster films include "Mrs. Doubtfire," "The Birdcage," "Jumanji," "Hook," two "Night at the Museum" films, among many others.
