The Glass Menagerie is coming to Broadway next season with Two-Time Academy Award Winner SALLY FIELD and Two-time Tony Award Winner JOE MANTELLO, under direction by Tony-Award Winning Director Sam Gold.
[(Fun Home (the Public; Obie Award, Lortel and Drama Desk nominations); The Flick (Playwrights Horizons, Lortel Award nomination); Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep, Drama Desk nomination)] . Mr. Gold first directed The Glass Menagerie at Toneelgroep Amsterdam (Ivo van Hove, Artistic Director, who recently won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play ) with an entirely Dutch-speaking cast. The production received rave reviews and massive international attention.Mr. Gold spoke enthusiastically about his experience, “The experience I had doing this play in Amsterdam was life-changing, and the fact that we’ve managed to put together this cast to do it on Broadway is the most perfect outcome I could have imagined. Like any sane person, I’ve been hoping for Sally Field to carve out some time to do a play again. When I saw her Mary Todd Lincoln, I started dreaming of her as Amanda Wingfield. As for Joe Mantello, seeing that original production of Angels in America, in which he starred, was a great source of inspiration for me at the time. Because Joe is such a wonderful director, he has had very little time to act. I’m incredibly lucky that he has agreed to come back to the stage to play Tom.”
The Glass Menagerie brought Tennesse Williams to the national forefront of the public eye with the first Broadway production of the play in 1945. Tennesse Williams is critically acclaimed for his Southern-setting plays. He drew the inspiration for his works based on his family experiences. When the Glass Menagerie first arrived on Broadway, it was a revolutionary spark for American theatre. Names of his other marvelous masterpieces include A Street Car Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Night of the Iguana. Tennesse Williams won four New York Drama Critics Circle Awards and two Pulitzer Prizes in his career of writing twenty-five full length plays, dozens of short plays and screenplays, sixty short stories, numerous novels, one novella, and over one hundred poems. His great works have been translated into about twenty-seven languages and productions of his great written work have been on the stage world-wide. The Glass Menagerie will feature the complete design team from the Toneelgroep Amsterdam production: Andrew Lieberman (Scenic Design), Woiceich Dziedzic (Costume Design), Adam Silverman (Lighting Design), and Bray Poor (Sound Design).
Sally Field who stars as Amanda Wingfield was first seen on Broadway in Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia and previously played Amanda in the 2004 Kennedy Center production of The Glass Menagerie. Here, she received great accolades and it is no surprise that she is back to wow audiences again with her talent and the same role. Sally Field is a two-time Academy Award winner recently starred in Hello, My Name is Doris co-starring Max Greenfield which was written and directed by Michael Showalter. She also won the New York Film Critics award for best supporting actress and was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics Choice Award, BAFTA and Academy Award for her role as Mary Todd in Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed film: Lincoln.
Ms. Field spoke about her new project and unique opportunity: “To say this is a dream come true is an understatement. Working with the best of the best, from Sam Gold to Joe Mantello to Scott Rudin, on one of the greatest plays ever written is beyond thrilling. Right now I can barely breathe. Hopefully that’ll pass.”
Joe Mantello plays Tom Wingfield and has four shows currently running on Broadway: Blackbird, The Humans (Tony Award nomination), Wicked, Take Me Out (Tony Award), An Act of God Laugh Whore, Assassins(Tony Award) . He received Emmy and Critics’ Choice Television Award nominations for his performance in HBO’s “The Normal Heart” (dir. Ryan Murphy).
Finn Wittrock (Jim O’Connor) can be seen in Adam McKay’s Oscar-nominated drama, The Big Short, alongside Christian Bale, Steve Carrell and Brad Pitt. The Big Short cast received nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics Association for Best Ensemble. Wittrock currently stars in The Submarine Kid, which he wrote with lifelong friend and director of the film, Eric Bilitch. The Submarine will star in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land alongside J.K. Simmons, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Wittrock also appeared in Season 5 of FX’s and Ryan Murphy’s critically-acclaimed, Emmy-nominated series, American Horror Story (Hotel) alongside Lady Gaga and Matt Bomer and Season 4, Freak Show, as “Dandy” for which he received an Emmy Award nomination, and alongside Aaron Eckhart in the sport drama My All American, written and directed by Angelo Pizzo. Wittrock is a graduate of Juilliard and is currently a member of The Mechanicals Theatre Group in L.A.
Madison Ferris plays Laura Wingfield, with previous credits including Camillo in The Winter’s Tale, Vera in The Odd Couple: Female Version, and Cassie Cooper in Rumors. Ferris’ Dance performances include “Ballet (New York)” performed at the Martha Graham Studio and “The Show Must Go On” performed at the Joyce Theater (both choreographed by Jérôme Bel). Madison is also a previous student of Larry Singer Studios.
PERFORMANCES BEGIN TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
AT BROADWAY’S GOLDEN THEATRE
OPENING NIGHT SET FOR THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2017
-Alexa Christina Politis (@risingstarxoxo)