'Mary Stuart' Comes To Broadway In Spring '09

Following a sold out run at the Donmar Warehouse and in London's West End, Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter will recreate their acclaimed performances on Broadway in Friedrich Schiller's classic play, MARY STUART.  The critically praised new version by Peter Oswald and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, will come to Broadway in Spring, 2009 at a confirmed Shubert theatre.  Further casting, other members of the creative team and ticket information will also be announced soon.
 
McTeer will be making her first Broadway appearance since her Tony Award-winning performance in A Doll's House in 1997.  Walter, who won the 2005 Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for her performance, is returning to Broadway for the first time since the Royal Shakespeare Company's All's Well That Ends Well in 1983.

This is the first Broadway production of MARY STUART in almost 40 years.
 
MARY STUART will be produced on Broadway by Arielle Tepper Madover and Debra Black.

Michael Grandage, Artistic Director of the Donmar said today, "I am thrilled we are bringing our work to Broadway again. After the success of Frost/Nixon last year, I am particularly delighted that American audiences will now get to experience one of the Donmar's great classical productions. Phyllida Lloyd's magnificent account of this historical drama acts out like a modern day political thriller and offers audiences a chance to engage with two towering performances."

For a Queen to stand, a Queen must fall.  Written by Friedrich Schiller in 1800, MARY STUART is a thrilling account of the extraordinary relationship between England's Elizabeth I (Harriet Walter) and her rival cousin, Mary Queen of Scots (Janet McTeer).

Ben Brantley, New York Times, hailed this production of  MARY STUART as "Ripping. A stage burner of a revival.  Mary Stuart is portrayed to a red-blooded fare-thee-well by Janet McTeer. Queen Elizabeth I is portrayed with glittering iciness by Harriet Walter.  Mary Stuart has never seemed more pertinent than it does in this vivid incarnation, staged by Phyllida Lloyd."  The Daily Telegraph pronounced it "Exhilirating… Pure Class!"  The Times raved, "Terrific Acting, Terrific Theatre, Terrific Schiller".   The Daily Mail called the production "Unforgettable".  The Observer raved, "Phyllida Lloyd has provided a gleaming, intense Mary Stuart. It's thrillingly staged and acted to the hilt".  The Sunday Times claimed, "Both female leads crackle with the kind of gun-powder charisma that sparks devotion and forments intrigue.  In this fine production, every lie, every deception, rings true".   

The Donmar Warehouse production of MARY STUART transferred into London's West End where it was produced by Arielle Tepper Madover, ACT Productions, Neal Street Productions & Matthew Byam Shaw.  MARY STUART played from July 14 through September 3, 2005 at the Donmar Warehouse and later transferred to the Apollo in London's West End, where it played from October 7, 2005 to January 14, 2006.      

Janet McTeer's theatre work includes Duchess of Malfi, Uncle Vanya (NT), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Worlds Apart, The Storm (RSC), Taming of the Shrew (Globe Theatre), The Doll's House (London and New York Tour, winner of a Tony Award), Simpatico, The Grace of Mary, Greenland (Royal Court). Her breakthrough film appearance was as Mary Jo in Tumbleweeds. Other film credits include Terry Gilliam's Tideland and Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It. Her TV appearances include "The Governess" and "Precious Bane".

Walter's extensive work for theatre includes: For the NT: Dinner, Life x 3, Children's Hour, Arcadia; for the RSC: The Hollow Crown, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, A Question of Geography, Cymbeline, Three Sisters. Other theatre credits include The Royal Family (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Ivanov, The Possessed (Almeida), Old Times (Wyndhams Theatre), Three Birds Alighting on a Field, The Seagull, Hamlet (Royal Court) and The Castle (Barbican). Her film credits include Atonement, Babel, Chromophobia, Bright Young Things, Villa Des Roses, Onegin, Bedrooms & Hallways, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The Governess, The Leading Man, Sense & Sensibility, The Hour of the Pig, Milou en Mai, The Good Father, Turtle Diary and Reflections. Recent TV appearances include "Five Days," "Messiah," "Spooks"/"MI-5" and "Midsomer Murders".  

German playwright Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) began writing as a means of escape during his enforced military service. After penning his first play, The Robbers (1782), his work was discovered by his superiors and he was forbidden to write. He deserted and lived under an assumed name, working as a court playwright and stage manager. His other plays included Intrigue and Love (1784), Don Carlos (1787), Wallenstein's Camp (1798), The Piccolomini (1799), Wallenstein's Death (1799), Mary Stuart (1800), Maid of Orleans (1801) and William Tell (1804). He formed a close friendship with Goethe, and their collaboration made the Weimar Theatre one of the most prestigious in Germany. He died in 1805 of tuberculosis.

Peter Oswald's original work includes The Swansong of Ivanhoe Wasteway, Allbright, Valdorama, Augustine's Oak and The Golden Ass; and translations include Schiller's Don Carlos, Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos, Racine's Phaedra, Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards, Lorca's Dona Rosita The Spinster and a stage adaptation of the Sanskrit epic The Ramayana.

Phyllida Lloyd's previous work for the Donmar includes her award-winning production of Boston Marriage in 2001 and The Threepenny Opera in 1994. She most recently directed Wild East for the Royal Court where she has also directed Six Degrees of Separation and Hysteria. Other credits include The Way of the World, Pericles, What the Butler Saw, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Duchess of Malfi (NT); and Mamma Mia! (West End, Broadway and worldwide). Also an acclaimed opera director, Lloyd has worked with Opera North and the ENO.  For film, she directed Mamma Mia! which opens worldwide this July.

 The Donmar Warehouse is one of London's leading producing theatres and has garnered critical acclaim at home and abroad for its unparalleled catalogue of work. Since 1992, Donmar-generated productions have received 30 Olivier Awards, 15 Critics' Circle Awards, 15 Evening Standard Awards and 13 Tony Awards. The Donmar has a long and successful history of presenting its work outside of its home in Covent Garden. Productions in the West End include Mary Stuart, Frost/Nixon, A Voyage Round My Father, Guys and Dolls, Design for Living, The Glass Menagerie, Company, The Real Thing and Passion Play. Productions on Broadway include Frost/Nixon, Cabaret, Electra, The Blue Room, The Real Thing, True West, Nine and the Public Theater and Donmar collaboration of Take Me Out.

Photo Credit Alastair Muir