By Andrew Gans
11 Nov 2010
Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, which received a 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play and was previously announced to arrive on Broadway this season, will now likely make its Main Stem debut in fall 2011, according to the New York Times.
The Times also reports that the production will likely star Academy Award winner Halle Berry and Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson; in fact, the delay in the show's Broadway arrival is due to the busy schedule of the two film stars.
The play, which imagines a meeting between an enigmatic hotel maid and Martin Luther King, Jr. the night before his assassination, would cast Jackson as MLK and Berry as the maid.
Jean Doumanian Productions in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions will produce the acclaimed play, which will be directed by Kenny Leon (Fences, A Raisin in the Sun).
Set on April 3, 1968, The Mountaintop, according to press notes, "is a gripping reimagining of events the night before the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., as he retires to Room 306 in the now famous Lorraine Motel in Memphis, after delivering his legendary ‘From the mountaintop’ speech to a massive church congregation. When room-service is delivered by a young woman, whose identity we puzzle over, King is forced to confront his past, as well as his legacy to his people." The Mountaintop received its world premiere in a three-week run at Theatre 503 in June 2009, and subsequently transferred to the West End’s Trafalgar Studio 1.Katori Hall, an American actress and playwright, grew up in Memphis and is a child of the post-civil rights era. She is a recent graduate from the Juilliard School playwriting program and was the recipient of William Inge Theatre Festival's 2010 Otis Guernsey New Voices in the American Theatre Award. She is an alumnus of both Harvard and Columbia Universities.
11 Nov 2010
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| Halle Berry |
The Times also reports that the production will likely star Academy Award winner Halle Berry and Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson; in fact, the delay in the show's Broadway arrival is due to the busy schedule of the two film stars.
The play, which imagines a meeting between an enigmatic hotel maid and Martin Luther King, Jr. the night before his assassination, would cast Jackson as MLK and Berry as the maid.
Jean Doumanian Productions in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions will produce the acclaimed play, which will be directed by Kenny Leon (Fences, A Raisin in the Sun).
Set on April 3, 1968, The Mountaintop, according to press notes, "is a gripping reimagining of events the night before the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., as he retires to Room 306 in the now famous Lorraine Motel in Memphis, after delivering his legendary ‘From the mountaintop’ speech to a massive church congregation. When room-service is delivered by a young woman, whose identity we puzzle over, King is forced to confront his past, as well as his legacy to his people." The Mountaintop received its world premiere in a three-week run at Theatre 503 in June 2009, and subsequently transferred to the West End’s Trafalgar Studio 1.
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