Tim Robbins Looking to Bring WEEKEND to Broadway?

This morning, the New York Post is reporting that Gore Vidal's WEEKEND, might be Broadway bound. On November 3rd, New York Theater Workshop held a reading of the political play which boasted a cast consisting of  Tim Robbins, Jan Maxwell, Kerry Washington, Carrie Preston, Adriane Lenox, and Margo Martindale. The reading was free to the public and part of NYTW's Pre-Elections series.

Tim Robbins, the Post reports, wants to take the show to Broadway next season and is currently looking for a producer to back the project.

In Weekend it’s 1968 and the Republican Party is in a struggle for its conscience.  Four years earlier after an explosive rise by Barry Goldwater and the far right, Goldwater became the Republican nominee for President running against LynDon Johnson.  Crushingly defeated, the Republican Party was left in disarray.  Now the longstanding progressive core of the party is attempting to make a comeback.  Republican Senator Charles MacGruder is preparing to announce his candidacy for president and make a bold statement against the Vietnam War, when his son arrives for the weekend with shocking and potentially career-ending news.

Weekend premiered on Broadway in the spring of 1968, in the heat of the campaign during which it is set, and Vidal’s biting political humor is no less relevant today.  In a whirlwind of self-righteousness, bigotry, blackmail, and opportunism, conservative values are called into question—even into direct contradiction—as pollsters and loyalists try to contain the damage and protect their candidate from the swirling media circus.  As politicians question their consciences in the midst of scandal, we get a prescient snapshot of a critical moment in our nation’s political history.

Photo of Tim Robbins by Pablo Pimienta