Script of Alan Bennett's The History Boys Now Available

The script for Alan Bennett's The History Boys, winner of the Olivier, Evening Standard and London Critics Circle Awards for Best Play, is available today in bookstores. The script is published by Faber & Faber.

Bennett's acclaimed autobiography, Untold Stories, is also available in bookstores today. Untold Stories, for which Bennett was honored with the 2006 British Book Award for Author of the Year, is published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

The History Boys will open Sunday, April 23 at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). Previews begin on Friday, April 14 for a 20-week limited engagement.

The show opened on May 18, 2004 at The National Theatre of Great Britain, where it quickly became a sell-out hit. The play, directed by the National's artistic director Nicholas Hytner, won the Evening Standard, Olivier and London Critics' Circle Awards as Best Play. The History Boys is Bennett's (Talking Heads, The Madness of King George) first Broadway play in 30 years, since Habeas Corpus in 1975.

"An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results and a history teacher who thinks he's a fool. Alan Bennett's The History Boys is about staffroom rivalry, the anarchy of adolescence and the purpose of education," according to press notes.

The boys will be played by Samuel Anderson (Crowther), Samuel Barnett (Posner), Dominic Cooper (Dakin), James Corden (Timms), Sacha Dhawan (Akthar), Andrew Knott (Lockwood), Jamie Parker (Scripps) and Russell Tovey (Rudge). The teachers will be played by Frances de la Tour (Mrs. Lintott), Richard Griffiths (Hector), Clive Merrison (Headmaster) and Stephen Campbell Moore (Irwin). Other roles will be played by Joseph Attenborough (Company), Tom Attwood (Company/Music Director), Rudi Dharmalingam (Company), Colin Haigh (TV Director) and Pamela Merrick (Make-Up Lady).

Richard Griffiths received the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance, and Nicholas Hytner received the honor for Best Director.

The History Boys, which will be produced by Boyett/Ostar Productions and the National Theatre of Great Britain, will feature scenic and costume design by Bob Crowley, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound design by Colin Pink, music by Richard Sisson and video direction by Ben Taylor. The actors in The History Boys will appear with the permission of Actors' Equity Association.

Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00 PM, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM. Tickets are on sale through www.Telecharge.com. Visit historyboysonbroadway.com for more information.