Candice Bergen, Angela Lansbury, John Larroquette, Michael McKean Join Broadway Revival of THE BEST MAN

Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Candice Bergen, five-time Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury, Tony and Emmy Award winner John Larroquette and Drama Desk Award winner and Academy Award nominee Michael McKean will join the previously announced James Earl Jones in the Spring 2012 Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's THE BEST MAN.

The play will be directed by Michael Wilson, who received the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Director of a Play for the acclaimed epic production of Horton Foote's The Orphans Home Cycle Part I, II and III at the Signature Theatre Company, and also directed Foote's Dividing the Estate on Broadway.

Gore Vidal's THE BEST MAN will begin rehearsals on Monday, January 30, 2012, with the first preview performance on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. An official opening is set for Sunday, April 1, 2012, at a Shubert Theatre to be announced.

A play about power, ambition, political secrets, ruthlessness and the race for the presidency, Gore Vidal's THE BEST MAN was Vidal's second play following the success of his international comedy hit, Visit to a Small Planet. Gore Vidal's THE BEST MAN will make its return to Broadway in its first major revival since its critically acclaimed run in 2000 which received a Tony Award nomination and won a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play Revival. Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, and Darren Bagert (Infinity Stages), the producers of that production, will be reuniting to present the work in the Spring of 2012.

Candice Bergen previously appeared on Broadway in the mid-1980s in Hurlyburly by David Rabe. She is best known for starring in two TV series; as the title character on "Murphy Brown" (1988-1998), for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on "Boston Legal" (2004-2008), for which she was nominated for two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She made her motion picture debut in 1966's The Group and went on to starin a number of major films throughout the mid-1960s to early 1980s such as The Sand Pebbles, Carnal Knowledge, The Wind and the Lion, Gandhi and Rich and Famous, and received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Starting Over. Her later career includes roles in Miss Congeniality and Sweet Home Alabama, as well as a series arc on "House."

Angela Lansbury has enjoyed an unprecedented career, first as a star of motion pictures, and then as an award-winning stage actor in New York and London. Most recently, she appeared as Madame Armfeldt in the 2009 revival of A Little Night Music, and before that as Madame Arcati in the 2009 revival of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, for which she won her fifth Tony Award, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. She performed in 2006 in Terrence McNally's Deuce, for which she was also nominated for a Tony Award. She made her Broadway debut in 1957 as Bert Lahr's wife in Hotel Paradiso. In 1960, she returned to Broadway as Joan Plowright's mother in the season's most acclaimed drama, A Taste of Honey, by Shelagh Delaney. A year later, she starred in her first musical, Anyone Can Whistle. Lansbury returned to Broadway in triumph in 1966 in Mame, for which she won her first Tony Award. She received others as the Madwoman of Chaillot in Dear World (1968), as Mama Rose in the 1974 revival of Gypsy and as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (1979). From 1984-1996 she starred as Jessica Fletcher, mystery-writing amateur sleuth, on "Murder, She Wrote," the longest-running detective drama series in the history of television, a role that won her four Golden Globe Awards. In 1994, Queen Elizabeth named her a Commander of the British Empire, and in 2000 she received the Kennedy Center Honors.

John Larroquette is currently starring as J.B. Biggley in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, a performance that won him 2011 Tony and Drama Desk Awards. He was previously seen in the Off-Broadway production of Oliver Parker! written by Elizabeth Meriwether. Past stage appearances include Neil Simon's Oscar and Felix: A New Look at The Odd Couple at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles and Happy Jack written by two-time BAFTA winner John Godber. Larroquette is a five-time Emmy Award-winning actor, best known as Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding on NBC's "Night Court," which earned him four Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He also starred in the NBC comedy series "The John Larroquette Show," was a series regular on "Boston Legal" and won his fifth Emmy Award for a guest-starring role on "The Practice." His film credits include Stripes, Oliver Stone's JFK Richie Rich and Tune in Tomorrow.

Michael McKean, currently appearing in The Public Theater's production of King Lear,won the 2008 Drama Desk Award for his performance in The Homecoming(Outstanding Ensemble Performance). Other Broadway credits include Superior Donuts. The Pajama Game, Hairspray, Accomplice (Theatre World Award). Off-Broadway: Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory. Elsewhere: Love Song (London),(Hollywood Bowl), On the Razzle(Williamstown). TV: "Laverne & Shirley," "Dream On," "Sessions," "Tracy Takes On," "Saturday Night Live," "Primetime Glick," "Friends," "The X Files," "The Simpsons," "Law & Order," "Alias," "Boston Legal," "The Unit," etc. Film: This Is Spinal Tap, The Big Picture (co-wrote both), Clue, Coneheads, The Brady Bunch Movie, True Crime, Jack, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind (Academy Award nomination, Best Original Song), For Your Consideration, Whatever Works, many more. Recently toured 30 U.S. cities with Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer (Unwigged & Unplugged) and appeared with Spinal Tap at the 2009 Glastonbury Festival and Wembley Arena in support of the recently released Tap recording, Back From the Dead. Co-wrote the Grammy-winning theme to A Mighty Wind (with Guest and Eugene Levy) and the Oscar-nominated A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow, with his wife Annette O'Toole.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos