Christopher Plummer, a homegrown star in the early days of the prestigious Stratford Festival in Ontario, will return as a septuagenarian to play King Lear for the fest's 50th season in 2002, the Toronto Star reported.

A spokesperson for the festival told Playbill On-Line the 2002 season is still being planned and details are being addressed, and nothing is ready to be announced. The official announcement is expected in September, but some details may be officially released in August.

Toronto-born Plummer, 71, is best known around the world, perhaps somewhat to his chagrin, as Capt. Von Trapp in the film "The Sound of Music." He has been hailed as a classical actor, and in his younger days at the Stratford Festival, he appeared in Henry V, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Cyrano de Bergerac and Twelfth Night into the early 1960s. In 1967, he starred with Zoe Caldwell in Antony and Cleopatra. After a long absence, he returned for the 1996 Stratford tryout of the Livent production of Barrymore, which would earn him the Tony Award when it went to Broadway.

Despite the festival's roots in — and commitment to — classics, a revival of The Sound of Music this season is expected to become the biggest-selling show in the history of the company.

— By Kenneth Jones