'LIFE' With Patrick Stewart To Play Schoenfeld Theatre

As previously announced, acclaimed Tony Award nominated actor Sir Patrick Stewart will return to Broadway in David Mamet's A LIFE IN THE THEATRE. Today, Variety reported that the production will play Broadway's Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, following the exit of A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE June 6.

"Life" also announced a design team that includes Santo Loquasto (set), Kenneth Posner (lights) and Laura Bauer (costumes). 'A Life in the Theatre' will be directed by Neil Pepe.

Stewart will portray the lead character of 'Robert', a role he previously played in the 2005 production at London's Apollo Theatre. Additional cast will be announced at a later date.

In 2009, stage and screen actor Patrick Stewart won an Evening Standard Award, a Critics' Circle Award, a TMA Theatre Award, a Theatregoers' Choice Award nomination, an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, and a Tony Award nomination for playing the title role in Rupert Goold's Chichester Festival Theatre production of Macbeth which subsequently transferred to the West End and then Broadway.  His many other appearances for the RSC include Hamlet, The Tempest and Antony and Cleopatra both in Stratford and at the Novello Theatre. His other London theatre credits include Waiting for Godot opposite Ian McKellen, A Life in The Theatre and The Masterbuilder and in New York his credits include Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Ride Down Mount Morgan and The Tempest.  Stewart performed his acclaimed, award winning one-man show, A Christmas Carol, both in the West End and on Broadway.  His many film and television credits include the X-Men films, Moby Dick, King of Texas and King Lear, as well as his role as Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek series.  Stewart was made an OBE in 2001.

Neil Pepe, Artistic Director the the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City, is set to help the production, which tells the story of a young actor and his relationship with an older mentor. A Life in the Theater premiered in 1977 at Chicago's Goodman Theater starring Mike Nussbaum and Joe Mantegna, directed by Gregory Mosher (currently represented on Broadway with A View From the Bridge starring Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber). Later in 1977, it premiered in New York City at the Lucille Lortel Theater, starring Peter Evans and Ellis Rabb,  directed by Gerald Gutierrez.

David Mamet has received Tony Award nominations for Glengarry GLen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988), as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Glengarry GLen Ross. As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997). Mamet's recent books include The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (2004), a Torah commentary, with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Wicked Son (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, a commentary on the movie business. His newest play Race, starring James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington, and Richard Thomas, opened on Broadway December 6, 2009 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre where it continues to run.

Photo by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.