Ralph Fiennes to Play Robert Moses in Straight Line Crazy Off-Broadway
(© Manuel Harlan)
Tony winner Ralph Fiennes will play Robert Moses, New York's longtime master builder and power broker, in the US premiere of David Hare's Straight Line Crazy, which begins previews at the Shed October 18 ahead of an official opening night on October 26. Performances are scheduled through December 18.
Charting Moses's 40-year career, Straight Line Crazy tells the story of the city's most influential urban planner, a man who held multiple important public offices but was never actually elected to any of them. His legacy can still be felt in numerous roads and bridges around the greater New York City area, as well as the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.
According to a press statement, "The play presents an imagined retelling of the arc of Moses's controversial career in two decisive moments: his rise to power in the late 1920s and the public outcry against the corrosive effects of that power in the mid-1950s."
In addition to Fiennes, the cast features David Bromley (Stamford Fergus), Alana Maria (Shirley Hayes), Guy Paul (Henry Vanderbilt), Judith Roddy (Finnuala Connell), Helen Schlesinger (Jane Jacobs), Mary Stillwaggon Stewart (Nicole Savage), and Danny Webb (Governor Al Smith), whom critic Sarah Crompton praised in her review for WhatsOnStage, observing, "his sheer sense of inhabiting this cigar-chomping, bourbon-drinking charmer, lights up the stage."
The director of the recently concluded London run, Nicholas Hytner, will direct the New York production with the addition of Jamie Armitage (Six) as co-director. Additional casting will be announced.
The creative team for includes Straight Line Crazy includes Bob Crowley (set and costume design), Jessica Hung Han Yun (lighting design), George Dennis (sound design), George Fenton (music composition), Jaimie Todd (associate designer), Robert Sterne (casting), and Cynthia Cahill (production stage manager).
