Is Banderas-Led ZORBA Revival Back on Track for 2012-2013 Season?

Back in the spring of 2010, stage and screen star Antonio Banderas confirmed his intention to star in the Broadway revival of ZORBA, with the hope of an opening this spring September, 2011. Barry and Fran Weissler are attached to the project as lead producers.

The fall season on Broadway for 2011 is now set and, with Banderes set to film Pedro Almodovar's new Spanish film, The Skin I Live In, in April, a 2011-2012 Zorba revival won't be possible.  

The project, however, is far from dead.  In an interview with the New York Post, Banderas reveals that Zorba is now aiming for the 2012-2013 season after The Skin I Live In wraps.  Says Banderas:

"I used to be adventurous...More mainstream movies, but I have jumped over boundaries and gone back a little to my roots. I'm not so concerned about box office. I'm willing at this stage to break the rules....But my happiest was spending eight months onstage in America. I loved every moment. So I'm looking forward to do ‘Zorba' on Broadway with the Weisslers producing. First is a movie in April. With a Spanish director. About robbers and science fiction. Then ‘Zorba.' "

Barry Weissler has previously said of the show that he'll be looking to revive the musical in a theater that would suit not only a bucolic Mediterranean set design but also the desire of his star, Antonio Banderas, to avoid performing in one of Broadway’s bigger theaters. (Houses range in size from about 600 seats to about 1,900, with 15 having more than 1,300 seats.) “We’d like to build the set out into the audience somewhat, and we have Antonio’s wish to keep the production intimate, so that the audience feels they are on a journey across the cliffs of Crete,” he said."

Previous reports from last year suggest that the revival of "Zorba" would be directed by Gary Griffin and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo.

The actor won major critical acclaim on Broadway for his performance in Maury Yeston's musical Nine, based on the film 8½, playing the prime role. Banderas won both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a musical for his performance in Nine.

Although Nine marks Banderas' only Broadway appearance to date, he appeared as Che in the film version of Evita and was also in the running to play the title role in the film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (before it went to Gerard Butler). A film star in his native Spain before coming to America, he has acted in such films as Desperado, Original Sin, Femme Fatate, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Frida, Shrek 2, Shrek Forever After,  and the Spy Kids movies, as well as in the HBO film "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself." 

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