'BIRDIE' & 'PRESENT LAUGHTER' Confirmed for Roundabout's 2009/2010 Season

The New York Times is reporting that The Roundabout Theater Company has announced two more productions for its 2009-10 season.

Roundabout will offer the first Broadway production of "Bye Bye Birdie" since its original production in 1960. There have been rumors for the last sevral years that the compnay would mount a revival and the rumblings were heating up for the past few weeks, Robert Longbottom ("Flower Drum Song") is the director and choreographer for the new production.

Also reported was the news that the Roundabout will revive Noel Coward's "Present Laughter," with Victor Garber as the put-upon matinee idol Garry Essendine. Nicholas Martin, who directed the comedy for the Huntington Theater Company in 2007, which also starred Mr. Garber, will direct the new revival.

The Roundabout  is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres. The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company currently produces at three permanent homes each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

Lead support for Roundabout's new play fund generously provided by: The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Laura Pels Foundation.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts; and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. American Express is the 2008-2009 season sponsor of the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2008-2009 season includes Rodgers & Hart's Pal Joey, starring Stockard Channing, Matthew Risch & Martha Plimpton, directed by Joe Mantello; Lisa Loomer's Distracted featuring Cynthia Nixon, directed by Mark Brokaw; Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, starring Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Cerveris, Paul Sparks and Peter Stormare, directed by Ian Rickson; Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist, starring Matthew Broderick, directed by David Grindley; Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, starring (in order of speaking) Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman, David Strathairn, directed by Anthony Page. Roundabout's sold out production of The 39 Steps made its second Broadway transfer to the Helen Hayes Theatre on January 21, 2009.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.