The homage to the title screenwriter Dalton Trumbo will play at the Virginia Wimberly Theatre in the Theatre Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, Feb. 8-27.
Christopher Trumbo, son of the work's focal character, culled the play from the letters of the legendary blacklisted screenwriter. Trumbo tells the story of one of the "Hollywood Ten" who went before the House Un-American Activities Committee. After refusing to answer questions about his political affiliations, Trumbo was fired from MGM and imprisoned for a year.
Dennehy won a 2003 Tony Award for his performance in Long Day's Journey Into Night. His other Broadway appearances include Translations and another Tony-winning turn in Death of a Salesman. He is reprising the title role in Trumbo which he previously played Off-Broadway.
Peter Askin (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Sexaholix... a love story) — who directed the recent Off-Broadway staging — returns to helm the work which has its lead actor reading from a script mostly seated at a desk. The words of Trumbo echo upon subjects as serious as injustice tempered with a lighthearted letter to his son doling advice on masturbation. The Narrator fills out the storyline with biographical details between scenes — as do film projections including actual footage from the HUAC hearings.
Trumbo played Off-Broadway with Nathan Lane in the title role with successive stints featuring F. Murray Abraham, Gore Vidal, Richard Dreyfuss, Roger Rees, Robert Loggia, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Richards and Chris Cooper. Gordon McDonald — who will play opposite Newman — had played in the show's other role of Narrator/Christopher. Dalton Trumbo wrote such screenplays as "Exodus," "Spartacus," "Roman Holiday" and "Papillon" as well as the novel "Johnny Got His Gun." The homage addresses the Oscar he never won for "The Brave One" — penned under the pseudonym Robert Rich.
The newly-announced staging joins the previously slated productions of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, Melinda Lopez's Sonia Flew, Lanford Wilson's Burn This, Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals, Naomi Iizuka's 36 Views, Culture Clash's Culture Clash in AmeriCCa and the William Finn-James Lapine musical Falsettos.
The 23rd season at Huntington includes an eight-show lineup, five of which will perform at the company's long-time home at the Boston University Theatre and three to play in the company's new smaller space, the Virginia Wimberly Theatre in the Theatre Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.
The Huntington 2004-2005 season lineup is as follows: (subject to change)
