Bennett's The History Boys Opens on Bway, April 23

By: Sep. 09, 2005
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The History Boys, Alan Bennett's play about the growing pains and joys of a group of lads in a British boys' school, will start it's Broadway run on April 14th, 2006 for an April 23rd opening at a theatre to be announced.

Nicholas Hytner, who will helm the piece of Broadway, recently directed the piece at The National Theatre, where it received the Evening Standard, Critic's Circle and Olivier Awards for Best Play. Bob Boyett and Bill Haber (Democracy, The Pillowman on both shores) will produce The History Boys, which will reportedly star the same actors that it did in the West End; the cast includes Richard Griffiths, Stephen Campbell Moore, Clive Merrison, Sacha Dhawan, Samuel Anderson, Dominic Cooper, Andrew Knott, Samuel Barnett, Russell Tovey, Jamie Parker and James Corde.

According to production notes, The History Boys follows "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 headmistress obsessed with results and a history teacher who thinks he's a fool. [The play] is about staff room rivalry, the anarchy of adolescence and the purpose of education."

Broadway is not the only destination for the play. A film, also directed by Hytner, is currently shooting with the majority of the original cast as stars. Also, the show will tour to Australia and two other cities in the United Kingdom, according to Variety.

In 1994, Hytner directed the screen adaptation of Bennett's The Madness of King George, which starred the Oscar-nominated Nigel Hawthorne in spite of studio heads lobbying for Al Pacino to win the title role. On Broadway, Hytner helmed Miss Saigon, the Royal National Theatre production of Carousel (Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Director of a Musical), Twelth Night, Sweet Smell of Success and the RNT production of Jumpers. Bennett's other plays include Talking Heads, Habeas Corpus and Beyond the Fringe.

Visit www.ntny.org for more information.


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