Film Star Julia Roberts to Shine on Broadway in Three Days of Rain

Film star Julia Roberts is scheduled to make her Broadway debut in a new production of Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain in the spring of 2006 under the direction of Joe Mantello, according to The New York Times.

The play was produced Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1997 and almost certainly would not be coming to Broadway so soon if a star of Roberts’ wattage were not attached to the project. Last month, Mantello (Wicked, Glengarry Glen Ross) held a reading of the script in Los Angeles with Roberts, who has virtually no stage experience but is one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. The actress won an Academy Award for her performance in the title role of Erin Brockovich (2000); her other credits include Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Pelican Brief, Hook, Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias, and Mystic Pizza.

Three Days of Rain concerns a brother and sister who discover their deceased father’s diary. With a family friend, they probe into a secret at the heart of their parents’ relationship. The play’s two acts are set 35 years apart; the actors play the children in Act I and the parents in Act II. The MTC production starred Patricia Clarkson, John Slattery, and Bradley Whitford.

Greenberg’s other works for the stage include Take Me Out, The Violet Hour, The Dazzle, and Eastern Standard. His new play A Naked Girl on the Appian Way will be presented on Broadway this fall by the Roundabout Theatre Company, with a cast headed by Jill Clayburgh and Richard Thomas. Mantello is also set to direct Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in a Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple that is scheduled to open at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in October.