Rialto Chatter: Will Dustin Hoffman Lead OUR TOWN Revival on Broadway?

BroadwayWorld has learned that online rumors about a Broadway revival of Our Town are true. Producer Scott Rudin has plans to bring Thornton Wilder's play back to Broadway for the first time since 2002. Rudin has tapped Tony winner Bartlett Sher (To Kill a Mockingbird) to direct the play, which will be led by Dustin Hoffman, who last appeared on Broadway in 1990. A timeline for the production remains unknown.

Mr. Rudin's representative denied to comment on the news.

The last Broadway revival of Our Town starred Paul Newman, Jane Curtin, Stephen Spinella, and Jayne Atkinson. The production was filmed, and aired on both PBS and Showtime.

Our Town is a 1938 three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens.

Throughout, Wilder uses metatheatrical devices, setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being performed. The main character is the stage manager of the theatre who directly addresses the audience, brings in guest lecturers, fields questions from the audience, and fills in playing some of the roles.

Our Town was first performed at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey in 1938. It later went on to success on Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It remains popular today and revivals are frequent.

Dustin Hoffman's first theatrical performance was 1961's A Cook for Mr. General as Ridzinski. During that time he appeared in several guest roles on television in shows like Naked City and The Defenders. He then starred in the 1966 Off-Broadway play Eh? where his performance garnered him both a Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award.

His breakthrough role was as Benjamin Braddock in the Mike Nichols' critically acclaimed and iconic film The Graduate (1967) where he received his first Academy Award nomination. His other film roles include Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Rain Man, Tootsie, Hook, Finding Neverland, and Meet the Fockers. He returned to stage acting with a 1984 performance as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and reprised the role a year later in a television film earning a Primetime Emmy Award. In 1989, he was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for playing Shylock in a stage performance of The Merchant of Venice.

He is the recipient of numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award), four British Academy Film Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, and two Emmy Awards. Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999 and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012.