Producers Frederick Zollo, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Raymond L. Gaspard, Frank Gero, Cheryl Wiesenfeld, Jeffrey Sine, Michael Rose and Robert Cole announced today that Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman will star together on Broadway in A STEADY RAIN, a critically acclaimed two-character play by Keith Huff. Directed by Tony Award nominee John Crowley, A STEADY RAIN begins previews on Thursday, September 10, 2009 and opens Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street) for a strictly limited 12 week engagement through Sunday, December 6, 2009.
Highly-accomplished stage actors and worldwide screen icons, Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman bring considerable theatrical experience to their roles. In London Mr. Craig has worked with the Royal National Theatre (Angels In America), the Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic (Hurlyburly), and he was nominated for a 2002 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Number co-starring with Michael Gambon at The Royal Court Theatre. Mr. Craig is making his Broadway debut in A STEADY RAIN. Mr. Jackman won a 2004 Tony Award, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Award for his portrayal of the 1970s singer-songwriter Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz. Previous theater credits include Carousel at Carnegie Hall and Oklahoma! at the National Theater in London, where he was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. In his native Australia he won a MO Award (Australia's Tony Award) for his performance as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, and he was nominated for a MO Award for Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
A STEADY RAIN is a new American play that tells the story of two Chicago cops who are lifelong friends and their differing accounts of a few harrowing days that changed their lives forever.
A STEADY RAIN was first produced in 2006 at New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater. It had its professional world premiere in 2007 at Chicago Dramatists and was remounted in February 2008 at Chicago's Royal George Theatre winning Jefferson Awards for Best New Work and Best Production. Critics in Chicago were not short on praise:
"Extraordinarily visceral, this is a breakout Chicago play and it will get you right where you live. With an intricacy of storytelling, richness of language and a sophisticated mélange of broad themes, the play neither preaches nor sanitizes. It just unleashes a blast of nervous pity and raw fear. This riveting show is an exceptionally rich, gritty and emotional drama."
- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
"Keith Huff's torch song of a 90-minute play tells the story of a relationship of almost biblical intensity, and one riddled with love, loyalty, guilt, shame, and a primal inevitability. Huff provides fiery, superbly rendered, often deeply poetic speeches, enough mood shifts, enough emotional cataclysms and action-packed storytelling to keep this hallucinatory roller-coaster ride in motion. I would happy see this production again with an audience of real men in blue, just to take the temperature in the room."
- Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
"Keith Huff's crackerjack two-hander is like a snowball that builds to an avalanche with genuine dramatic power and a sense of true tragedy. The adroit character development combined with a billowing narrative delivers rattling emotional crescendos."
- Steven Oxman, Variety
Mr. Huff's recent productions include Pursued by Happiness at Steppenwolf Theater, Gray City at American Repertory Theater, and The Bird and Mr. Banks, which just finished a critically acclaimed 4-month run at The Road Theater in Los Angeles featuring Sam Anderson (LOST). Huff's recently completed works include The Detective's Wife and Tell Us of the Night, which round out a trilogy of Chicago cop plays that began with A STEADY RAIN.
A STEADY RAIN is produced on Broadway by Frederick Zollo, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Raymond L. Gaspard, Frank Gero, Cheryl Wiesenfeld, Jeffrey Sine, Michael Rose and Robert Cole. Set and costume design are by two-time Tony Award winner Scott Pask, with lighting design by two-time Tony Award nominee Hugh Vanstone and original music and sound design by Mark Bennett.
Tickets go on sale exclusively to American Express cardholders Saturday, July 11, 2009, at 8am (EST) and to the general public Saturday, July 25, 2009, at 12:01am (EST). Tickets range from $130.00 to $66.50 with specially priced $31.50 student tickets. The performance schedule for A STEADY RAIN is as follows: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm. For tickets visit www.telecharge.com at 212.239.6200.
