Gregory Mosher Departs Broadway Revival of ALL MY SONS; Jack O'Brien Now To Direct
A casting dispute has led director Gregory Mosher to depart a recently announced Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, starring Annette Bening and Tracy Letts.
According to a report in the Washington Post, Mosher left the production following the Miller estate's denial of his request to cast two black actors as siblings in roles normally played by white actors.
Legendary Broadway director Jack O'Brien will replace Mosher on the project.
Roundabout released a statement earlier this evening regarding the matter, reading:
"Despite our shared commitment to having a diverse cast in our production of All My Sons, Gregory Mosher and the Arthur Miller estate did not ultimately share the same vision of how best to achieve that. They couldn't agree on the specific casting choices that would lead to the richest-possible All My Sons for 2019, and thus, Gregory Mosher has decided to step aside. We welcome Jack O'Brien as our director, and we're looking forward to presenting his production of this Arthur Miller masterpiece this spring."
Rebecca Miller, daughter of the late playwright, also released a statement asserting her willingness to allow diverse casting in her father's works, but felt that Mosher's choices were "not fully thought out."
She added, "I am very excited to open my father's work up to diverse casting. Hence, an African American Loman family in [director] Marianne Elliott's upcoming 'Death of a Salesman' in London, and [director] Rachel Chavkin's upcoming multiracial '[The] American Clock.' "
The Post also reports that despite the dispute, the play will feature diverse casting, just not in Mosher's requested configuration.
Jack O'Brien directed the LCT productions of Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia (Tony Award), The Invention of Love(Drama Desk Award), and Hapgood (Lucille Lortel Award). His other LCT productions include Macbeth, The Nance, Henry IV (Tony Award), Pride's Crossing, The Little Foxes, and Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony nomination). His Broadway credits include the current Carousel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Front Page, It's Only a Play, Dead Accounts, Catch Me If You Can, Impressionism, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray (Tony Award), Imaginary Friends, The Full Monty, More to Love, Getting Away With Murder, Damn Yankees, and Porgy and Bess. Metropolitan Opera: Il Trittico. Carnegie Hall: Guys and Dolls. Central Park: Much Ado About Nothing. London: Love Never Dies, Hairspray, His Girl Friday (National Theatre). He was the Artistic Director of The Old Globe Theatrefrom 1981-2007 and directed six movies for PBS's "American Playhouse." Book: Jack Be Nimble, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. O'Brien directed the critically acclaimed national tour of The Sound of Music and the world premiere of the Jake Heggie/Terrence McNally opera Great Scott for The Dallas Opera. Mr. O'Brien was nominated for an Emmy Award for his documentary "Becoming Mike Nichols" (HBO).
Annette Bening and Tracy Letts return to Broadway in the play that launched Arthur Miller as the moral voice of the American Theater. In the aftermath of WWII, the Keller family struggles to stay intact and to fight for their future when a long-hidden secret threatens to emerge-forcing them to reckon with greed, denial, repentance, and post-war disenchantment across generations.
