Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) presents Kate Burton as "Constance Middleton", Michael Cumpsty as "John Middleton", John Dossett as "Bernard Kersal" and Lynn Redgrave as "Mrs. Culver" in the new Broadway production of W. Somerset Maugham social comedy The Constant Wife, directed by Mark Brokaw at the American Airlines Theatre (227 West 42nd Street). Previews begin on Friday, May 27th, 2005 and opens officially on Thursday, June 16th, 2005. This is a limited engagement through August 7th, 2005.
The cast also includes Enid Graham as "Martha", Kathryn Meisle as "Marie-Louise", Denis Homes as "Bentley", John Ellison Conlee as "Mortimer Durham" and Kathleen McNenney as "Barbara Fawcett".The design team for The Constant Wife includes Alan Moyer (sets), Michael Krass (costumes),
Mary Louise Geiger (lights) and David Van Tieghem (sound and original compositions). The Constant Wife is a social comedy of marital maneuvers in 1920s upper-class London. Constance Middleton discovers that her husband is having an affair with her best friend. Rather than humiliating herself and others, she denies the affair, defends the two, and sets about turning bad luck, unfaithful friends, local gossip and a broken heart to her own advantage.The Broadway premiere of The Constant Wife began performances at Maxine Elliott's Theatre on November 29th, 1926. The last Broadway production on Broadway began performances at the Shubert Theatre on April 14th, 1975.
Twelve Angry Men is currently playing at the American Airlines Theatre through May 15th. TICKET INFORMATION: Biographies:
Kate Burton (
Constance Middleton) most recently received two Tony® nominations for
Hedda Gabler and
The Elephant Man. Appeared in
Three Sisters directed by
Michael Blakemore in the West End in 2003. Most recently she has been seen in
Unfaithful and
Stay with
Ewan McGregor. Upcoming: "Empire Falls" on HBO,
Shall Not Want with Maggie Gyllenhall,
The Night Listner with
Robin Williams, and will be recurring as D
R. Ellis Grey in "Gray's Anatomy" for ABC.
Michael Cumpsty (
John Middleton). Mr. Cumpsty appeared most recently on Broadway in
Democracy. His many Broadway appearances include
Copenhagen, Enchanted April (Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination),
42nd Street (Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination),
Electra, 1776, Racing Demon, The Heiress, Translations,
Timon of Athens (Bayfield Award),
La Bête and
Artist Descending a Staircase. His off-Broadway credits include
Timon of Athens, All's Well That End's Well, Hamlet, Cymbeline and
The Winter's Tale (all for the New York Shakespeare Festival) as well as
The Art of Success at Manhattan Theatre Club and
Man and Superman at the Roundabout Theatre Company. He has appeared in many of America's premiere regional theatres, including the
Williamstown Theatre Festival,
Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage,
ALLIANCE THEATRE,
McCarter Theatre and the
Guthrie Theatre. Mr. Cumpsty also starred in the
Royal Shakespeare Company's production of
The Winter's Tale at the company's home in Stratford-upon-Avon. His television series appearances include his regular role on NBC's
L.A. Law and recurring role on the UPN series
Star Trek: Voyager. Mr. Cumpsty has also been seen in the made for TV films
The Lady in Question (A&E),
Night Sins (CBS),
Mistrial (HBO)
Hamlet (PBS) and
The Kennedys of Massachusetts (ABC). His film credits include
The Ice Storm,
Fatal Instinct, and
State of Grace.
John Dossett (
Bernard Kersal). Recent New York credits:
Democracy,
Gypsy (Tony, Drama Desk noms.),
Dinner at Eight,
An Almost Holy Picture,
Tom Sawyer,
Dinner With Friends,
A Little Night Music (Kennedy Center). Member of Circle Rep. for 14 years: Reckless, Prelude to a Kiss, Sunshire, among many others. TV/Film: "Hack", "Law & Order," "Sex in The City," "Homicide,"
That Night, Longtime Companion. He lives with his wife, the incomparable
Michele Pawk, and their son, Jack.
Lynn Redgrave (
Mrs. Culver) was born in London into a family of actors. She made her stage debut in 1962 as Helena in
A Midsummer Night's Dream and went on to become a founding member of The
Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. She made her film debut in
Tony Richardson's
Tom Jones in 1963 and in 1966 the title role in
Georgy Girl brought her international fame, an Oscar nomination and the Golden Globe and New York Film Critics awards. For
Gods and Monsters she won the 1999 Golden Globe as Best Supporting actress and was again nominated for an Oscar. Other notable films include
Shine (BAFTA and SAG nominations),
Girl with Green Eyes, The Virgin Soldiers,
Everything you Always Wanted to know about Sex, Getting it Right,
The Next Best Thing,
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog, Deeply, Unconditional Love,
My Kingdom opposite the late
Richard Harris, David Cronenberg's
Spider with
Ralph Fiennes,
Anita and Me,
The Wild Thornberrys and PJ Hogan's
Peter Pan. She has twice been nominated for an Emmy and her many television credits include Hall
Mark Hall of Fame's
My Sister's Keeper,
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, (with her sister Vanessa,)
Different and
Varien's War. In London's West End she played Masha in
Three Sisters (also with Vanessa) and in 2001 appeared as Dottie Otley in
Noises Off. In 2002 she took part in the Sondheim Celebration at The Kennedy Center, Washington DC, playing Joanne in Company. Her numerous Broadway credits include Black Comedy, My Fat Friend, Mrs Warren's Profession (Tony Nomination) Aren't We All, Moon over Buffalo and Strike up the Band. Her one woman play Shakespeare for my Father brought her a second Tony nomination and after the Broadway run, Ms. Redgrave toured nationally and worldwide. Last season Off Broadway she won the Drama Desk, Obie and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her performance as Miss Fozzard in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. She recently completed a national tour of The Exonerated and appeared to great acclaim in the film Kinsey written and directed by Bill Condon. Ms. Redgrave has also written the text for Journal, A Mother and Daughter's Recovery From Breast Cancer, featuring photographs by her daughter, Annabel Clark, currently in its third printing from Umbrage Editions.
Enid Graham (Martha). Ms. Grahams Broadway credits include: Dinner at Eight, Fortunes Fool, and Honour. New York credits: The Long Christmas Ride Home, Psych, Crimes of The Heart, The Turn Of The Screw, As Bees in The Honey Drown, Look Back in Anger, and Love's Labor Lost. Regional Theatre credits include: Don Carlos, and Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare Theater, The Adventures of Amy Bock at Yale Repertory, and Racing Demons at The Guthrie Theatre. Ms. Grahams Film credits include The Interpreter, Herman USA, and Advice From A Caterpillar. Her TV credits include "OZ", as well as "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".Kathryn Meisle (Marie-Louise). Ms. Meisle appeared most recently in Roundabout Theaters production of Tartuffe on Broadway doe which she received a Tony Award nomination for her portrayal of Elmire. Her many Broadway appearances include London Assurance, The Rehearsal, at the Roundabout and Racing Demons at Lincoln Center. Her off-Broadway credits include Living Out, Twelfth Night, Old Money, What You Get and What You Expect, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Othello, and As You Like It in which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. He has appeared in many of America's premiere regional theatres, including the Long Wharf Theater, Shakespeare in DC, ALLIANCE THEATRE, and Guthrie Theater. Ms. Meisles' film appearances include Down, That Night, and You've Got Mail. Her TV credits include "CSI: Miami", "NYPD Blue", "Judging Amy", "OZ" and "Law and Order".
Denis Holmes (Bentley). Broadway credits include: Troilus and Cressida (Director Tyrone Guthrie), The Homecoming & An Ideal Husband (Director Peter Hall), Major Barbara (Director Daniel Sullivan). Other credits include: Six years at Royal Shakespeare Company, Two Years at the Old Vic, Seven London West End productions. Favorite roles played: Prospero, Othello, Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch, Trigorin, Dull Love's Labour's Lost, Asdak Caucasian Chalk Circle, Sir The Dresser, Admiral HMS Pinafore at Minnesota Opera, Kris Kringle Here's Love at Goodspeed Opera.John Ellison Conlee (Mortimer Durham). B'way: The Full Monty, 1776. Off-B'way: Once in a Lifetime (Atlantic Theater), The Green Heart (MTC), Hundreds of Hats (WPA); NYSF: Henry VIII, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure. Regional: All's Well That Ends Well (Goodman), The Misanthrope (McCarter), The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged) (The Old Globe); Williamstown: The Rivals, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It. TV: "Third Watch," "Spin City," "Law & Order," "Liberty" (PBS). Film: Kinsey, Serendipity. M.F.A.: NYU.
KATHLEEN McNENNEY (Barbara Fawcett). Broadway: After the Fall. A Few Good Men. Off-Broadway: Pearl Theater, NY Shakespeare Festival. Regional: Westport Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, California Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory, Long Wharf, Philadelphia Drama Guild, Bay Street Theater; Huntington Theater, Baltimore Center Stage. TV: "Law and Order SVU", "MOW: The Pennsylvania Miners Story", "A Woman Named Jackie". Guest Appearance: "Third Watch", "Law and Order", "High Incident", "Going to Extremes" and numerous pilots. Film: Lover Boy, Seaside Trilogy, School of Rock, Life With Mikey, It Could Happen to You, American Blue Note. Graduate of the Julliard School. Mark Brokaw (Director) most recently directed the New York revivals of Reckless starring Mary-Louise Parker (Manhattan Theatre Club at the Biltmore) and Baltimore Waltz starring Kristen Johnston (Signature Theatre Company). New York premieres include Paula Vogel's The Long Christmas Ride Home and How I Learned to Drive (Vineyard Theatre), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero (Playwrights Horizons and its U.K. premiere at London's Donmar Warehouse and West End) and This Is Our Youth (New Group and Second Stage), Craig Lucas' The Dying Gaul and Stranger (Vineyard Theatre), Douglas Carter Beane's As Bees In Honey Drown and Music From a Sparkling Planet (Drama Dept.), Wendy Wasserstein's Old Money (Lincoln Center Theatre), Lisa Kron's 2.5 Minute Ride (New York Shakespeare Festival) and Lynda Barry's The Good Times Are Killing Me (Second Stage). Regional credits include the new musical Marty with John C. Reilly at the Huntington, A Little Night Music in the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center, as well as work at the Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse and the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. He serves on the executive board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and is a member of Drama Dept.
Tickets are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org, or at the box office of the American Airlines Theatre (227 West 42nd Street). The Constant Wife will play Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00PM with a Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinee at 2:00PM. WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM (Playwright) was born in 1874 in Paris. Both his parents died before he was eleven and he was brought up by his austere uncle, the vicar of a Kentish seaside town, an experience he drew from in Of Human Bondage. Educated at King's School Canterbury, he went on to Heidelberg University where his ambition to become a playwright was born. After qualifying as a doctor, he published his first novel Liza of Lambeth in 1897, which was an immediate success and enabled him to give up medicine. He wrote many plays before his first success, Lady Frederick in 1907. The following year, four of his plays were running simultaneously in the West End. Of Human Bondage appeared in 1915. During the first war he was recruited by British Intelligence and his experiences as an agent formed the basis for Ashenden. His 1918 marriage with Syrie Wellcome produced a daughter and the 1920's were his most successful decade in the theatre: plays included The Sacred Flame, Our Betters' and The Circle. In 1933 he gave up the theatre but went on to write many novels including The Razor's Edge, Cakes and Ale and Theatre, recently filmed as "Being Julia" (2004) which secured Annette Bening an Oscar nomination. He died in 1965 at the age of 92 in the South of France where he had lived since shortly after his divorce in 1927.
Roundabout Theatre Company 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. The 2004-05 season marks an extraordinary time in Roundabout's history. The theatre has finally secured three permanent theatres each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. The off Broadway home, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre's Laura Pels Theatre with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays while the grandeur of its Broadway home, 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.
Roundabout Theatre Company productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; New York State Council on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. The Westin Hotel is the official hotel of the Roundabout Theatre Company. www.roundabouttheatre.org
