Freeman, Gallagher, McDormand Set for Broadway’s The Country Girl

Tony Award and Academy Award winner Mike Nichols will direct a Broadway revival of Clifford Odets’ drama The Country Girl, starring Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman, Academy Award winner Frances McDormand, and Peter Gallagher, to open in April 2008 at a Shubert Theatre.

The play, which premiered on Broadway in 1950, is about a down-on-his luck alcoholic actor and his unhappy wife, whose fortunes look to change when he is offered a role by a hot-shot director.

The original 1950 production starred Uta Hagen, Paul Kelly, and Steven Hill. A 1972 revival starred Jason Robards, Maureen Stapleton, and George Grizzard; it was filmed in 1974 with Shirley Knight replacing Stapleton. The 1954 film version starred Bing Crosby, William Holden, and Grace Kelly, who won the Oscar, while a 1982 television version starred Faye Dunaway, Dick Van Dyke, and Ken Howard.

Freeman received a Tony Award nomination in 1978 for The Mighty Gents; his other Broadway credits include Purlie and The Gospel at Colonnus. McDormand received a Tony nomination for playing Stella in the 1988 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire and played Hennie in the 1984 revival of Awake and Sing!. Gallagher received a Tony nomination for the 1986 revival of Long Day’s Journey Into Night; his
other Broadway credits include Grease, A Doll’s Life, Noises Off and Guys and Dolls.

The show will feature sets and costumes designed by Tony Award winner Tim Hatley, who previously worked with Nichols on Monty Python’s Spamalot. That show earned Nichols his seventh Tony Award as Best Director.