Theater News

Austin Pendleton to Star in The Black Monk

Austin Pendleton
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
Austin Pendleton
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)

Austin Pendleton will star in the title role of Wendy Kesselman’s chamber musical The Black Monk, which will make its world premiere at the Samuel Beckett Theatre on November 25. The production, which will officially open on December 4, will be directed by Kevin Newbury.

The show, inspired by Anton Chekhov’s story of the same name, follows the life of a gifted young artist who returns home after five years in Moscow to his adopted father and his childhood love, but is tempted by the power of the mysterious Black Monk.

The cast will include Scott Robertson, Elon Rutberg, and Sarah Ziegler. The creative team includes Christopher Berg (musical direction), Charlie Corcoran (sets), Jessica Jahn (costumes), and D.M. Wood (lighting).

Pendleton’s acting credits include Another Vermeer, Mother Courage and Her Children, Romeo and Juliet., Fiddler on the Roof, Shelter, Grand Hotel, and The Diary of Anne Frank. He received a Tony Award nomination for his direction on the 1981 revival of The Little Foxes and is currently represented Off-Broadway as the director of Fifty Words. He received a 2007 Drama Desk Award for being a Renaissance Man of the American Theater.