Lange to Star in Doyle's Bway-Bound London Cherry Orchard

Jessica Lange will take on the role of Madame Ranevskaya in a new London production of Anton Chekhov's wistful drama The Cherry Orchard, which will then cross the pond to Broadway.  Tony Award-winner John Doyle is slated to direct the production, which will begin performances in October.

ATG's Howard Panter will produce the Chekhov classic, which will receive a new translation from an "as-yet-undisclosed playwright."  The play concerns an upper-class Russian family, who find that their beloved cherry orchard will have to be auctioned off to pay for their mounting debts. 

Lange, who won a Theatre World Award for her performance in the 1992 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, was also recently seen on Broadway in The Glass Menagerie. She starred as Mary Tyrone in the acclaimed London revival of A Long Day's Journey Into Night, as well. Her many film credits include Broken Flowers, Big Fish, Titus, Rob Roy, Blue Sky, Cape Fear, Crimes of the Heart, Frances, Tootsie and All That Jazz.

Doyle recently won a Tony Award for his direction of Broadway's Sweeney Todd revival, which had previously been a hit in London.  His smash Cincinatti Playhouse production of Company--which, like Sweeney, features its actors doubling as the show's orchestra--is set for a Broadway run in the fall.  Other credits include the recent London revival of Mack and Mabel; he will next direct an East End production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus.