Melissa Leo & Hayden Panettiere Headed to Broadway in PICNIC?

Broadway producer Darren Bagert revealed recently that there are plans to bring both PICNIC and KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN back to the Great White Way. The Tony-winner mentioned in a recent statement that a revival of PICNIC will arrive on Broadway in the 2011-12 season, featuring direction by Sam Gold. 

Now, word is out in the New York Times that a starry reading of PICNIC took place on Monday featuring "Among those reading were the Academy Award-winning actress Melissa Leo ("The Fighter") as the widow Flo; Hayden Panettiere (TV's "Heroes") as her well-behaved daughter Madge; Laura Innes ("ER") as her neighbor Rosemary; and Seth Numrich ("War Horse") as the college student Alan, the role that was Paul Newman's Broadway debut in 1953."

The show is reportedly still aiming for Broadway in the Fall of 2012. Naturally the cast of a reading does not guarantee that all will continue with the production. 

Picnic premiered at the Music Box Theatre in 1953 in a production by The Theatre Guild, directed by Joshua Logan, and ran for 477 performances. The original cast featured Ralph Meeker, Eileen Heckart, Arthur O'Connell, Janice Rule, Reta Shaw, Kim Stanley andPaul Newman. Inge won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work, and Logan received a Tony Award for Best Director.