Dominic West Back to the Stage in BUTLEY?

Michael Coveney for Whatsonstage.com is reporting that Dominic West, who was most recently seen in The Donmar Warehouse's Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca may be starring next in Simon Gray's Butley, directed by Lindsay Posner.  West is known internationally for his role on the series The Wire.

The title character, a literary professor and T. S. Eliot scholar, is a suicidal alcoholic who loses his wife and male lover on the same day. The dark comedy encompasses several hours in which he bullies students, friends, and colleagues while falling apart at the seams.

It was first produced in 1971 at the Criterion Theatre in London's West End under the direction of Harold Pinter, with Alan Bates in the title role.

Bates reprised his performance the following year in a Broadway production directed by James Hammerstein at the Morosco Theatre, where it ran for 14 previews and 135 performances. Bates won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance, and Gray was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play.

A 2006 limited-run Broadway revival at the Booth Theatre was directed by Nicholas Martin. It starred Nathan Lane and Dana Ivey, who was nominated for the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Dominic West made his Donmar debut in Life is a Dream last fall. His theatre work includes Rock ‘n' Roll (Duke of York's Theatre), The Voysey Inheritance (National Theatre), As You Like It (Wyndham's Theatre), Design for Living (Broadway), The Country Wife (Sheffield Crucible), and The Seagull (Ian Charleson Award) Cloud Nine and Waste (all Old Vic). For television, his credits include Breaking the Mould, The Devil's Whore, The Wire and Nicholas Nickleby; and for film, Centurion, From Time to Time, 300, Hannibal Rising, The Forgotten, Mona Lisa Smile, Rockstar, 28 Days and A Midsummer Night's Dream.