In 1782, Choderlos de Laclos' novel of sex, intrigue and betrayal in pre-revolutionary France scandalized the world. Two hundred years later, in 1985, Christopher Hampton's stage adaptation became an award-winning sensation in London's West End and on Broadway, followed by the Academy Award-winning film Dangerous Liaisons.
Former lovers, La Marquise de Merteuil and Le Vicomte de Valmont compete in games of seduction and revenge. These merciless aristocrats toy with the hearts and reputations of innocents. Merteuil incites Valmont to corrupt the convent-educated Cecile de Volanges before her wedding night but Valmont has other designs. His target is the peerlessly virtuous and happily married Madame de Tourvel.
Josie Rourke's acclaimed production transfers to Broadway after a sold-out engagement at London's Donmar Warehouse which ended earlier this year and starred Janet McTeer. The production was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Revival.
Tony Award winners Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber will return to Broadway this Fall in the Donmar Warehouse production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton, directed by the Donmar's Artistic Director Josie Rourke.
This ghostly and sensuous revival of Christopher Hampton's hit play (based on the 1782 epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos) arrives on Broadway via the Donmar Warehouse with a mostly British cast. The ferocious Janet McTeer has come over, too, as the scheming Marquise de Merteuil, more than a match for Valmont as they trade the hearts of naive men and women like playing cards. Schreiber's impassive libertine pairs nicely with McTeer's vengeful, wicked widow. Director Josie Rourke opts for a languid pace as these two dance a minuet of wasted love and cruelty, a game in which death is the prize and the winner feels cheated.
Its newfound elan is thanks to a sizzling cast led by the sublime Janet McTeer and a bolder take on the piece from Rourke, who previously directed it last winter at the Donmar Warehouse, her London home. Whereas McTeer previously had to do the thespian heavy lifting, this Broadway version - entirely recast except for her - features a stronger ensemble.
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