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London Virginia Woolf, with Turner and Irwin, Begins Previews Jan. 21

By: Jan. 20, 2006
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The recent revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring all four members of its original Broadway cast, will make its highly anticipated London debut tonight, January 20th. It will open at the Apollo Theatre on January 31st.

The show will feature Tony Award-winner Bill Irwin (The Goat, Mostly New York) as George, while Tony Award-nominees Kathleen Turner (The Graduate in London and on Broadway, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, many films), Mireille Enos (Absurd Person Singular, The Invention of Love) and David Harbour (The Invention of Love, The Rainmaker) will recreate their roles as Martha, Honey and Nick, respectively. The production, which is directed by Anthony Page (who also staged the current hit London revival of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana), will mark the the first time since 1996 that the caustic Edward Albee classic has been seen on the West End; David Suchet and Diana Rigg headlined that production a decade ago.

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The Broadway production closed on March 20th, 2005 at the Longacre Theatre after having played 8 previews and 176 performances. Despite stellar reviews (The New York Times called it a "pulse-racing masterpiece"), the show's business lost steam during the final weeks of the fun.

A bitterly funny play about a night of pyschological warfare between two married couples, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the show received four other nods in addition to Irwin's win for Best Actor; it was nominated for Best Revival of a Play, for the three other principals and for costume designer Jane Greenwood.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? will be produced in London by Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? originally opened at the Billy Rose Theatre on October 13th, 1962, where it was immediately dubbed (by most) a masterpiece of modern theatre and ran for 664 performances. It received the 1963 Tony for Best Play, and stars Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill were also rewarded. A 1966 film classic was directed by Mike Nichols, and starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in an art-imitates-life reflection of their rocky marriage. The film was nominated for Best Picture, and also netted Oscars for Taylor and Sandy Dennis.






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