Theater News

Bosco, McDonald, Molina Set for Roundabout’s 2006-2007 Season

Audra McDonald
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)
Audra McDonald
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)

A revival of the musical 110 in the Shade starring four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and a new production of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House starring Tony winner Philip Bosco are among the shows that will be presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company during its 2006-2007 season.

Heartbreak House, about the unlikely romantic encounters that occur on an English estate, will play the American Airlines Theatre in the winter of 2007. No director has yet been announced. Bosco, who will play Captain Shotover, appeared as Boss Mangan in the play’s celebrated 1983 Broadway revival (in which Rex Harrison played Shotover). He was most recently seen on Broadway in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and, prior to that, in the Roundabout’s Twelve Angry Men.

McDonald will play Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade, the 1963 musical adaptation of The Rainmaker by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, scheduled to open at Studio 54 in the spring of 2007. The production will be directed by Lonny Price. This will be the show’s first Broadway revival but there was a critically acclaimed production in 1992 at New York City Opera, starring Karen Ziemba as Lizzie.

The Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre will host two American premieres. Patrick Marber’s Howard Katz will be directed by Tony winner Doug Hughes and will star Alfred Molina as the title character, a once-powerful talent agent who is now down on his luck; the show is slated to open in late 2006. Brian Friel’s The Home Place, about a father and son who are both in love with their housekeeper, will be directed by Joe Dowling and will open in spring/summer 2007.

Four more shows to complete the season will be announced at a later date. For further information, visit www.roundabouttheatre.org.