Denzel Washington & Jake Gyllenhaal to Star in OTHELLO on Broadway

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal will return to Broadway next season in a production of Othello directed by Kenny Leon. The production is set for an unspecified Shubert theatre.

Washington will play the title character and Gyllenhaal will take on the role of Iago.

This will be the 22nd production of Othello on Broadway, and the 11th since 1913 (the first where detailed opening and closing records were kept) starring Johnston Forbes-Robertson.

The last time Othello was seen on Broadway was the short-lived 1982 production starring James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. The production ran for 6 previews and 123 performances.

The new production will open Spring 2025 and is produced by Brian Anthony Moreland.

Denzel Washington is the most lauded stage and screen actor of his generation. His unforgettable performances have garnered him two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and countless other awards. He received his first Academy Award for the historical war drama Glory (1989) and his second for the crime drama Training Day (2001). In addition, he has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Cry Freedom (1987), Malcolm X (1992), The Hurricane (1999), Flight (2012), and August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences, in which he reprised his Tony Award-winning role opposite Viola Davis. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Mr. Washington. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017). Most recently Mr. Washington portrayed the role of Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon in The Little Things (2021).

Other notable credits include A Soldier's Story (1984), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Remember the Titans (2000), Inside Man (2006), The Great Debaters (2007), and American Gangster (2007). Mr. Washington's professional acting career began in New York, where he performed in theatre productions such as Ceremonies in Dark Old Men and Othello. He rose to fame when he landed the role of Dr. Phillip Chandler in the NBC long-running hit television series "St. Elsewhere." His other credits include the television movies "The George McKenna Story," "License to Kill," and "Wilma." In 2016, he was selected as the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.

In 2020, The New York Times named him the greatest actor of the 21st century and in 2022, Washington received the Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed upon him by President Joe Biden. He also produced the film adaptation of Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020). His stage credits include appearances in Broadway revivals of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun in 2014, and Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh in 2018. Washington is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award in five different decades, alongside Sir Laurence Olivier, Paul Newman, Sir Michael Caine, and Jack Nicholson.

Gyllenhaal began acting as a child, making his acting debut in City Slickers (1991), followed by roles in his father's films A Dangerous Woman (1993) and Homegrown (1998). His breakthrough roles were as Homer Hickam in October Sky (1999) and as a psychologically troubled teenager in Donnie Darko (2001).

Gyllenhaal starred in the 2004 science fiction disaster film The Day After Tomorrow. He played Jack Twist in Ang Lee's 2005 romantic drama Brokeback Mountain, for which Gyllenhaal won a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. His career progressed with starring roles in the thriller Zodiac (2007), the romantic comedy Love & Other Drugs (2010), and the science fiction film Source Code (2011). Further acclaim came with his roles in Denis Villeneuve's thrillers Prisoners (2013) and Enemy (2013), and he received nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performances as a manipulative journalist in Nightcrawler (2014) and a troubled writer in Nocturnal Animals (2016). His highest-grossing release came with the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), in which he portrayed Quentin Beck / Mysterio. He has since starred in Wildlife (2018), Velvet Buzzsaw (2018), The Guilty (2021), and Ambulance (2022).

Gyllenhaal has performed on stage, starring in a West End production of the play This Is Our Youth and Broadway productions of the musical Sunday in the Park with George as well as the plays Constellations and Sea Wall/A Life, the lattermost of which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. Aside from acting, he is vocal about political and social issues.

 

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