‘Oedipus' and ‘Rocky Horror Show' Are Returning to Broadway
Roundabout Theater Company, the largest nonprofit on Broadway, will present three very different classics next season: a Greek tragedy, a drawing-room comedy and a monster musical.
The English writer and director Robert Icke's 'Oedipus,' a new version of the seminal Sophocles drama about a king who inadvertently kills his father and marries his mother, will come to Broadway in the fall. The production, starring Mark Strong ('A View From the Bridge') and Lesley Manville ('Phantom Thread'), had an enthusiastically reviewed previous run in London, and just received four Olivier Award nominations, for best revival as well as for the work by Icke, Strong and Manville.
'Oedipus' is a commercial venture, with Sonia Friedman as the lead producer; Roundabout is presenting it this fall at Studio 54 and will offer it to subscribers as part of the nonprofit's season.
There were multiple versions of 'Oedipus Rex,' as the show is traditionally called, on Broadway in the early 20th century, but then it largely disappeared — the last production, a weeklong run in 1984, was performed in modern Greek.
After 'Oedipus,' Roundabout will pivot to lighter fare: The musical 'The Rocky Horror Show' in the spring of 2026 at Studio 54, and the play 'Fallen Angels,' that same spring, at the Todd Haimes Theater. (The Haimes will close this fall for a renovation, which will include a restoration of the interior and an upgrade to the bathrooms, elevators and seats.)
'The Rocky Horror Show' is a 1973 sci-fi spoof by Richard O'Brien; it first ran on Broadway in 1975 and was revived once before, in 2000. The new production will be directed by Sam Pinkleton ('Oh, Mary!'), who had been scheduled to direct a version of the musical in 2020 at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, but that production was scuttled by the pandemic.
'Fallen Angels' is a 1925 comedy by Noël Coward about two married women with a shared ex-lover. This revival will be directed by Scott Ellis, the Roundabout's interim artistic director, and will star Rose Byrne ('Bridesmaids') and Kelli O'Hara (a Tony winner for 'The King and I').
'Fallen Angels' has had two previous Broadway productions, in 1927 and 1956.
Roundabout also has an Off Broadway theater, the Laura Pels, where next fall it plans to stage 'Archduke,' a play by Rajiv Joseph ('Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo') about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Darko Tresnjak (a Tony winner for 'A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder') will direct, and Patrick Page ('Hadestown') will star.
Roundabout plans to follow 'Archduke' next winter with an Off Broadway production of 'Chinese Republicans,' a satirical workplace drama by Alex Lin, directed by Chay Yew.
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