Matthew Broderick to Return to Broadway in Roundabout's 'The Philanthropist'

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is proud to announce Tony® Award winner Matthew Broderick as “Philip” in a new Broadway production of The Philanthropist by Tony® and Academy Award winner Christopher Hampton, directed by David Grindley.

The Philanthropist will begin previews on April 10th, 2009 and open officially on April 26th, 2009 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street). This will be a limited engagement.

Additional cast members and the design team will be announced shortly.

Written as a response to Molière's The Misanthrope, Hampton’s biting bourgeois comedy examines the empty, insular lives of college intellectuals.  At the center of the story is Philip (Broderick), a professor who seems almost absurdly removed from the political turmoil surrounding him, including the assassination of the Prime Minister and his cabinet.

Stage veteran and 2-time Tony® winner Matthew Broderick (The Producers, How to Succeed in Business...) returns to Roundabout Theatre Company following the 2004 production of The Foreigner at the Laura Pels Theatre.  Director David Grindley also returns following his acclaimed 2007 production of Pygmalion starring Claire Danes and Jefferson Mays.  Roundabout is pleased to continue their relationship with Christopher Hampton following the recent Tony® nominated Broadway production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Laura Linney and Ben Daniels.

The Philanthropist premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1970.  It opened on Broadway in 1971 and was nominated for the Tony® Award for Best Play.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets will be available in the Spring of 2009, by phone at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.orgor at the American Airlines theatre box office (227 West 42 Street).

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

The Philanthropist will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Matthew Broderick (Philip).  A two-time Tony award-winning stage actor and instantly recognizable film presence, Matthew Broderick was most recently seen in the feature films Finding Amanda, alongside Brittany Snow, and Diminished Capacity, opposite Alan Alda and Virginia Madsen.  In the spring of 2008, he was also on the big screen in Helen Hunt’s directorial debut Then She Found Me.  Upcoming work includes Margaret with Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo, and Universal’s animated adventure The Tale of Despereaux, in which he voices the title character. He most recently wrapped production on Wonderful World, opposite Sanaa Lathan.  In 2005 he starred in the blockbuster Broadway production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple on Broadway. He also starred in the hit off-Broadway play, The Foreigner, at the Roundabout Theatre. Also in 2005, he starred in the feature film version of The Producers, reprising the Tony-nominated performance he gave on Broadway in this smash hit musical.  Broderick starred in the critically acclaimed You Can Count on Me opposite Laura Linney.  He also earned considerable acclaim starring opposite Reese Witherspoon in the critically lauded and Independent Spirit Award winning political satire Election, directed by Alexander Payne.  A New York native, he made his professional stage debut opposite his father, James Broderick, at age 17 in the production of On Valentine’s Day.  His performance in Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy, won him the Outer Critic’s Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. Broderick won his first Tony Award for Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, and starred in the play’s sequel, Biloxi Blues.  He won his second Tony for his role as J. Pierrepont Finch, in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.  Broderick has also starred in such blockbuster movies as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Glory, War Games, and Disney’s The Lion King, as the adult voice of Simba.  Additional credits include Bee Movie, Godzilla, Addicted to Love, The Cable Guy, Inspector Gadget, Deck the Halls, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Max Dugan Returns, Project X, Family Business, The Freshman, The Night We Never Met, The Last Shot and The Stepford Wives.  In addition to his stage, screen and Broadway credits, he has also appeared in the Showtime film Master Harold…and the Boys and received an Emmy nomination for the TNT production of David Mamet’s A Life in the Theater in which he starred opposite Jack Lemmon.  Broderick resides in New York with his wife Sarah Jessica Parker and son, James Wilkie Broderick.

Christopher Hampton (Playwright).  Christopher Hampton's plays, musicals and translations have garnered three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards and the New York Theatre Critics Circle Award, while prizes for his film and television work include an Oscar, two BAFTAs and a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Plays include The Talking Cure, White Chameleon, Tales From Hollywood, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Treats, Savages, The Philanthropist and Total Eclipse. He wrote the book and lyrics (with Don Black) for the musicals Sunset Boulevard and Dracula and the libretto for the Philip Glass operas Waiting For The Barbarians and Appomattox. He has translated extensively from Chekhov, Ibsen, Moliere, Odon von Horvath and Yasmina Reza (including Art and Lifex3). His screenplays include The Quiet American, Mary Reilly, Total Eclipse, Dangerous Liaisons, Carrington, The Secret Agent and Imagining Argentina, the last three of which he also directed. His latest screenplay was for the film Atonement, which won both the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for best Picture.

David Grindley (Director). Broadway: Pygmalion, Journey’s End (Belasco Theatre). London: Journey’s End (Olivier nomination) UK tours. West End directing credits include Honour with Diana Rigg, The Philanthropist with Simon Russell Beale, What the Butler Saw, Some Girls with David Schwimmer, Abigail’s Party (Olivier nomination) and Loot. Other credits include National Anthems (Old Vic) with Kevin Spacey, Single Spies, Richard III, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and the comedians The League of Gentlemen. Future work includes In the Club by Richard Bean and A Listening Heaven by Torben Betts.

Roundabout Theatre Company is one of the country’s leading not-for-profit theatres.  The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals and develops and produces new works by today’s writers and composers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today’s audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company currently produces at three permanent homes each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission.  Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics.  Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions.  Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company.  Roundabout productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts; and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.  American Express is the 2008-2009 season sponsor of the Roundabout Theatre Company.  The Westin New York is the official hotel of Roundabout Theatre Company.  

Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2008-2009 season also includes Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, starring Frank Langella, directed by Doug Hughes; Rodgers & Hart’s Pal Joey, starring Stockard Channing, Christian Hoff & Martha Plimpton, directed by Joe Mantello; David Rabe’s Streamers, directed by Scott Ellis, Lisa Loomer’s Distracted featuring Cynthia Nixon, directed by Mark Brokaw; Bob Fosse’s Dancin’; Steven Levenson’s The Language of Trees, directed by Alex Timbers and Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, starring Mary-Louise Parker, directed by Ian Rickson.  Roundabout’s sold out production of The 39 Steps transferred to the Cort Theatre on April 29th, 2008.

Roundabout Theatre Company’s critically acclaimed Broadway production of Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men is currently booking the third year of its multi-award winning tour.  Twelve Angry Men is directed by Tony-nominated director Scott Ellis (Curtains).

www.roundabouttheatre.org

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.