Vanessa Redgrave May Take The Breath of Life on Broadway

By: Nov. 17, 2005
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Vanessa Redgrave may soon be returning to Broadway in the London hit The Breath of Life. According to The New York Post's Liz Smith, the stage and screen star has expressed interest in playing the role created on the West End by Maggie Smith.

Smith co-starred with Judi Dench in the David Hare play, which concerns the lives of two women, a retired curator and a popular novelist, whose lives are linked by one man. "During a single, extraordinary night, Madeleine Palmer, a retired curator, and Angela Beale, a popular novelist, who have met only once before, spend an evening together in a way that echoes the hidden courses of their lives," as the show is described in press notes.

While no date or theatre has been arranged for the transfer, producer Robert Fox does have plans to move it to Broadway. A previously-announced Broadway production, which was to have starrEd Smith and Dianne Wiest in 2003, fell through.

A member of the acclaimed theatrical dynasty that also includes her late father Michael and her sister Lynn, the British-born Redgrave received a Tony Award for her performance in A Long Day's Journey Into Night. She had previously appeared on Broadway in Orpheus Descending and The Lady from the Sea, as well as having appeared in a number of shows in the West End; she recently appeared at the Kennedy Center in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hecuba. An Academy Award-winner for Julia, she also garnered nods for her performances in the films Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, Isadora, Mary, Queen of Scots, The Bostonians, and Howard's End.



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