Julia Roberts Headed to Bway in March in Three Days of Rain

The New York Times reports that Hollywood star Julia Roberts will make her Broadway debut in March of 2006 in "Three Days of Rain," a play by Richard Greenberg last seen in 1997 at the Manhattan Theater Club. Roberts is expected to star in the three-person play for a limited run of twelve weeks, and will be directed by Joe Mantello. Castubg for the other two roles in the play, the brother to Robert's character, and a male friend of the family have yet to be announced. The production is said to have come together over the last 6 weeks after a successful LA reading of the show in June.

The 1997 incarnation of the show starred John Slattery, Patricia Clarkson (in the Roberts role) and Bradley Whitford at MTC's Stage I.

Julia Roberts shot to fame during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy Pretty Woman opposite Richard Gere. Since then, Roberts has gone on to become the highest-paid actress in the world with an asking price of over 20 million dollars. Her impressive film career has also given her the title of most bankable actress in Hollywood, with box office receipts well over two billion dollars on the strength of numerous blockbusters. She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2000 for her critically praised turn as the title character in Erin Brockovich after two previous nominations during the 1990s. Her many film roles include Steel Magnolias, Pretty Woman, Sleeping with the Enemy, Hook, The Pelican Brief, My Best Friend's Wedding, Notting Hill, Conspiracy Theory, Runaway Bride, Ocean's Eleven, America's Sweethearts, Close and Ocean's Twelve.

A previous press statement describes the first act of this mysterious love story and family saga as taking place in 1995 as a brother and sister and their childhood friend meet to settle their parents' estate. Their fathers were long time friends and partners in an architectural firm whose careers started with a 1960's masterpiece "The Janeway House." From childhood memories and a diary, they piece together a story about their parents' marriages and their fathers' greatest building.

In the second act, the clock is set back thirty five years and the adult children become their parents during the crucial three days of rain of the title. Conclusions are proved wrong and the degree to which the children have misunderstood their parents is revealed.

Richard Greenberg is one of the most produced young American playwrights of the last decade, who has two other plays coming to New York in the coming months - A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, and a House in Town. Some of his previous works include Night and Her Star, The Extra Man, The American Plan, Eastern Standard and The Author's Voice and numerous collaboration with PBS. Three Days of Rain premiered in 1997 at South Coast Repertory Theatre. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.