The two fall shows at New York's Lincoln Center Theater company will be Tina Howe's Pride's Crossing starring Cherry Jones, and David Hare's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Ivanov starring Kevin Kline. Pride begins previews Nov. 6 for a Dec. 7 opening at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre (Off-Broadway). Ivanov starts Oct. 23 for an opening Nov. 20 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre (Broadway).
As he did for San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, where he serves as artistic director, Jack O'Brien will direct Cherry Jones in the Howe drama at the Off-Broadway, Mitzi Newhouse space. Pride's Crossing explores the fictional life of feisty, 91-year-old Mabel Tidings Bigelow, who relives her experiences through flashbacks.
Said O'Brien when he directed the play Jan. 25-March 2 in San Diego, "This play is funny and wise, an allegory of American women during the early 20th century, women who were not given -- particularly by their families -- the awareness that they could be great."
Kevin Kline, of Pirates Of Penzance and On the 20th Century stage renown, will star in the comedy/drama Ivanov, staged at the Vivian Beaumont by Gerald Gutierrez. The latter won a Tony for directing The Heiress (which also netted a best actress Tony for Jones), and his Broadway revival of Once Upon A Mattress closed May 31. Theatrical Index reports that the set design will be by John Lee Beatty.
This has been a heady time for playwright Howe. She received an honorary Doctorate from Whittier College in Los Angeles. The May 23 ceremony capped a week in which she'll also be honored by L.A. performers and the school's alumni at An Evening With Tina Howe two days earlier. Sept. 5, Howe's One Shoe Off, produced by The Lost World and directed by Crystal Brian, will have its West Coast premiere at the Gascon Center Theatre in Los Angeles.
On the heels of the critical success of Skylight in the West End and Broadway (the latter of which received a special 1997 Theatre World Award for Best Ensemble), playwright Hare has opened his latest in London. Amy's View, directed by Richard Eyre and starring Dame Judi Dench, opened at the National Theatre's Lyttelton space June 20.
Amy's View will be the eleventh David Hare play produced at the Royal National, following Plenty (1978), A Map Of The World, Pravda, The Bay At Nice / Wrecked Eggs, Fanshen, The Secret Rapture, Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, The Absence Of War, and Skylight.
Lincoln Center Theatre, which is run by artistic director Andre Bishop and executive producer Bernard Gersten, is hoping 1997-98 will be more commercially successful than the previous season, which saw Craig Lucas' God's Heart and Christopher Durang's Sex And Longing meet with critical disdain and audience disinterest, and Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter receive a disappointingly short Broadway run. Rumors have it that Bishop recently went to London to check out possible imports.