Michael Riedel reports in the New York Post today that the upcoming revival of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, which has been hunting for a theatre since this past summer, will take Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre (which had been booked by REBECCA up until yesterday) for a Spring 2012 opening.
The production will feature Blair Underwood as "Stanley", Nicole Ari Parker as "Blanche", Daphne Rubin-Vega as "Stella" and Wood Harris as "Mitch".
Tennessee Williams' sultry drama, A Streetcar Named Desire is set against the sexy backdrop of New Orleans' gritty French Quarter A Streetcar Named Desire tells the tale of former school teacher and socialite Blanche DuBois (Nicole Ari Parker), as she's forced to move in with her sister Stella (Rubin-Vega) and her animalistic husband Stanley (Blair Underwood). But the fragile, Blanche quickly gets a gritty life lesson in the seamy, steamy underbelly of 1940's New Orleans. The legendary Terence Blanchard has signed on to provide an original soundscape for the production.
Streetcar was last seen on Broadway in 2005 starring Natasha Richardson, Amy Ryan and John C. Reilly. This multi-racial production of A Streetcar Named Desire, is a follow-up to their highly successful Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which starred Terrence Howard, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose and James Earl Jones, and was directed by Debbie Allen. The production subsequently moved to London's West End (with Jones and Rashad joined by Sanaa Lathan as Maggie and Adrian Lester as Brick) where it was honored with the "What's Onstage" and the prestigious "Olivier" awards for Best Revival
Emily Mann (Director) Multi-award winning Director and Playwright Emily Mann is in her 21st season as Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre. Under Ms. Mann's leadership, McCarter was honored with the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater. Directing credits include this season's world premiere of Sarah Treem's The How and the Why with Mercedes Ruehl and Bess Rous; Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics with Jimmy Smits (also on Broadway); the world premiere of Christopher Durang's Miss Witherspoon with Kristine Nielsen (also at Playwrights Horizons off-Broadway); Uncle Vanya with Amanda Plummer (also adapted); All Over with RoseMary Harris and Michael Learned (also off-Broadway at The Roundabout; 2003 Obie Award for Directing); The Cherry Orchard with Jane Alexander, John Glover, and Avery Brooks (also adapted); Three Sisters with Frances McDormand, Linda Hunt, and Mary Stuart Masterson; A Doll House with Cynthia Nixon; and The Glass Menagerie with Shirley Knight. Her plays include Execution of Justice (supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship; winner of Helen Hayes and Joseph Jefferson awards; nominated for Drama Desk, Pulitzer and Outer Circle awards); Still Life (six Obie Awards); Greensboro (A Requiem); and Annulla, An Autobiography. Ms. Mann wrote and directed Having Our Say, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; winner of NAACP and Joseph Jefferson awards ). For the Having Our Say screenplay Ms. Mann won Peabody and Christopher Awards) A winner of the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award and the Edward Albee Last Frontier Directing Award, she is a member of the Dramatists Guild and serves on its Council. A collection of her plays, Testimonies: Four Plays, has been published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc. Her latest play, Mrs. Packard, was the recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award and was published by TCG in spring 2009. Most recently, Ms. Mann directed her latest adaptation, A Seagull in the Hamptons, a free adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, with Brian Murray and Maria Tucci; Mrs. Warren's Profession, with Suzanne Bertish; and the world premiere of Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I (with Tyne Daly and Brian Murray at McCarter Theatre and with Elizabeth Ashley at Playwrights Horizons in New York). She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Princeton University.
