Broadway NewsDenzel Washington to Star in The Iceman Cometh on BroadwayTony-winning director George C. Wolfe will helm the limited engagement this spring.
By
Olivia Clement
August 20, 2017
Tony winner and two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington is set to return to Broadway as Hickey in a new production of Eugene O'Neill's four-act epic The Iceman Cometh. Five-time Tony winner George C. Wolfe will direct the limited engagement at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre this spring.
Performances are set to begin March 22, 2018 ahead of an April 26 opening. The limited engagement is scheduled for 14 weeks only.
Washington’s Broadway credits include A Raisin in the Sun, Fences, Julius Caesar, and Checkmates. He won the Tony Award for his performance as Troy Maxon in August Wilson’s Fences, a role he recently reprised for the 2016 film adaptation, which he also directed.
Wolfe has won five Tony Awards, three as a producer, and two as a director. His Broadway directing credits include Shuffle Along, Lucky Guy, The Normal Heart, Caroline, or Change, The Wild Party, and On the Town, among many more.
Scott Rudin will produce the Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh, with further casting and a creative team to be announced at a later date.
Rudin was behind the 2015 Off-Broadway revival of the play, which played the Brooklyn Academy of Music following an acclaimed run at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. The production was directed by Robert Falls, and starred Tony Award winners Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy.
O'Neill's classic play, The Iceman Cometh, takes place at Harry Hope’s saloon, where, twice a year, charismatic traveling salesman Hickey pays a visit. When a newly sober Hickey arrives, his renewed outlook on life threatens to upend the lives of his old friends, leading to a series of comic and heartbreaking events.
The Iceman Cometh premiered on Broadway in 1946, and was last revived on the Great White Way in 1998 in a production starring Kevin Spacey as Hickey.