Scott Rudin to Bring Revival of Miller's THE CRUCIBLE to Broadway in 2016

According to a casting notice posted on Actors' Equity, Scott Rudin will be bringing a limited-run revival of the Arthur Miller classic, THE CRUCIBLE to Broadway in 2016.

The notice indicates that rehearsals will get underway on January 25, 2016, with the first preview performance scheduled for February 29th and the final performance set for July 17, 2016. The venue is to be determined. Zoe Rotter and Heidi Griffiths will serve as casting directors.

Also of interest, the notice reads that the production is: "seeking a diverse company. Unless specifically stated, characters are any ethnicity."

The description of the play is as follows:

"In the tight-knit, Puritan town of Salem, a group of girls are discovered dancing in the woods and then immediately fall ill. When no earthly cause can be identified, fear and suspicion begin to percolate in the small, isolated community, that something larger, more fearsome, and other worldly may be to blame. Buried secrets and resentments are brought to light, and attempts to root out evil lead to finger-pointing, treachery, and betrayal. When everyone is a suspect, sometimes the most dangerous threat to the community may be the community itself."

In addition, the notice indicates that casting is complete for the roles of John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend John Hale and Judge George Danforth. Auditions for understudies for the roles are currently underway.

Back in March, The Daily Mail revealed that Tony winner Sophie Okonedo is in talks to star in a production of THE CRUCIBLE on Broadway, to be helmed by Ivo van Hove.

The 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the U.S. government blacklisted accused communists. Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of "contempt of Congress" for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

The play was first performed at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway on January 22, 1953, starring E.G. Marshall, Beatrice Straight and Madeleine Sherwood. The production won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play. It went on to become a central work in the canon of American drama. [source]