Theater News

J.B. Priestly's The Roundabout to Make US Premiere

Britts Off Broadway presents a long-lost comedy at 59E59 Theaters.

Steven Blakeley in the Park Theatre production of The Roundabout.
Steven Blakeley in the Park Theatre production of The Roundabout.
(© Robert Workman)

59E59 Theaters will host the U.S. premiere of J.B. Priestley's The Roundabout as part of the Brits Off Broadway series. Directed by Hugh Ross and produced by Cahoots Theatre Company, the Other Cheek, and Park Theatre, the show will have a limited run, April 20-May 28, with an official April 30 opening.

The Roundabout is a comedy first seen in 1932 and subsequently forgotten. Ross rediscovered the piece in his father’s extensive collection of J.B. Priestley books and papers and revived it at the Park Theatre in London in August 2016.

The play is described as follows: "Richard Kettlewell is an old Etonian whose business ventures are failing. Over a crowded weekend, his daughter Pamela, whom he hardly knows, returns from Russia, a passionate communist; his ex-wife and mistress both turn up; and his butler has a big win at the races. The Roundabout is a funny, touching, highly perceptive look at England in the 1930s, when it looked, just possibly, as if the social order might be changing."

The cast features Steven Blakeley, Lisa Bowerman, Richenda Carey, Charlie Field, Derek Hutchinson, Annie Jackson, Emily Laing, Ed Pinker, Brian Protheroe, Hugh Sachs, and Carol Starks.

The design team includes Polly Sullivan (production design) and David Howe (lighting design), with music composed by Matthew Strachan. The production stage manager is Cate Agis.

For tickets and more information, click here.

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The Roundabout

Closed: May 28, 2017