ARCADIA, Tom Stoppard's play, will return to New York this spring for a limited engagement in an acclaimed new production directed by five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux. ARCADIA arrives on Broadway from the West End where this production became an sold out hit in 2009.
The Broadway cast will include Margaret Colin, Billy Crudup, Raúl Esparza, Glenn Fleshler, Grace Gummer, Edward James Hyland, Byron Jennings, Bel Powley, Tom Riley, Noah Robbins, David Turner and Lia Williams.
ARCADIA will begin previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street) on Friday, February 25, 2011 with an opening night set for Thursday, March 17, 2011. Tickets for this limited engagement are on sale through Sunday, June 19, 2011. Tickets are on sale now online at Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200.
In a statement, playwright Sir Tom Stoppard said, "Since its first production in 1993, ARCADIA has become the play of mine which has been done the most in the U.S., so I'm really delighted that it's coming back to New York. David Leveaux and I have had very good experiences on Broadway with Jumpers and The Real Thing, so I'm especially pleased that ARCADIA is returning under his direction."
Billy Crudup, who received a 2007 Tony Award for his performance in Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, made his Broadway debut in the 1995 production of ARCADIA, in the role of ‘Septimus Hodge.' In this upcoming production, he will play ‘Bernard Nightingale.' Crudup also received Tony nominations for his work in The Pillowman (2005), and The Elephant Man (2002). Raúl Esparza (Valentine Coverly) has received four Tony Award nominations for starring roles on Broadway in Speed the Plow (2009), The Homecoming (2008), Company (2007) and Taboo (2004). Lia Williams (Hannah Jarvis) made her Broadway debut in David Hare's Skylight for which see received a 1997 Tony Award nomination (and an Olivier Award nomination in London).
David Leveaux's previous collaborations with Tom Stoppard include the Tony Award-winning revival of The Real Thing (which also played at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway) and the Tony-nominated revival of Jumpers. For both productions, he received Tony Award nominations for his direction. He also received Tony nominations for his direction of Nine, Anna Christie, and A Moon for the Misbegotten.
ARCADIA is produced on Broadway by Sonia Friedman Productions, Roger Berlind, Stephanie P. McClelland, Scott M. Delman, Robert G. Bartner, Olympus Theatricals and Doug Smith.
ARCADIA is set in April 1809 in a stately home in Derbyshire. Thomasina, a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory, beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. Two hundred years later, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard (Lia Williams and Billy Crudup) are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809, in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth.