The National Actors Theatre's 2002-03 season kicks off Oct. 3 with the much-anticipated production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, which stars Academy Award winner Al Pacino and a host of Hollywood names. Originally scheduled to play through Oct. 26, PBOL announced the news that the play has been extended through Nov. 3.
The complete cast list for the production, which is being directed by Simon McBurney, follows: Al Pacino as Arturo Ui; Ajay Naidu as The Barker, Bowl, Shorty and Court Physician; Billy Crudup as Flake and The Defense Counsel; Chris McKinney as Caruther and Greenwool; John Ventimiglia as Butcher and Crocket; Jack Willis as Mulberry; Dominic Chianese as Clark; William Sadler as Sheet, O'Casey and the Judge; Chazz Palminteri as Ernesto Roma; Lothaire Bluteau as Young Inna and The Defendant Fish; Charles Durning as Old Dogsborough; Tom Riis Farrell as Young Dogsborough and Pastor; Jacqueline McKenzie as Dockdaisy; Michael Goldfinger and Matte Osian as Arturo Ui's Bodyguards; Paul Giamatti as Ted Ragg, Prosector and Ignatius Dullfeet; John Goodman as Emanuele Giri; Sterling Brown as Goodwill; Robert Stanton as Gaffles; Tony Randall as The Actor; Steve Buscemi as Giuseppe "The Florist" Givola; Novella Nelson as A Wounded Woman; and Linda Emond as Betty Dullfeet.
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This production of Arturo Ui features a translation by George Tabori, and the creative team includes Robert Innes Hopkins (set and costume designer), Paul Anderson (lighting designer), Christopher Shutt (sound designer), Christina Cunningham (costumes), Ruppert Bohle (projection designer) and Robert-Charles Vallance (hair, wig and make-up designer). Doug Hosney will serve as the production stage manager with Christine Catti and Andrew Neal as stage managers.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui will play Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. Admission is available by purchasing a membership to the NAT, which gives one access to then buying a ticket (plus first dibs on NAT's later-season shows). The total cost will top at more than $100 per member. However, a spokesman told Playbill On-Line Sept. 5 that some non-member tickets will be released, and there will be several rows of seats available to students at each performance. NAT has stressed that the high ticket price is about supporting a not-for profit theatre company committed to classics, not paying high salaries to stars.
Director McBurney's New York credits include Mnemonic, The Noise of Time, The Street of Crocodiles and The Chairs.
The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University is located on Spruce Street between Park Row and Gold Street. All tickets and memberships for the National Actors Theatre are available through Telecharge by calling (212) 239-6280.
Written while in exile in 1941, Brecht's Arturo Ui recasts Hitler's rise as a Chicago gangster's takeover of the Windy City's green-grocery trade. The play bowed on Broadway in November 1963. The production featured incidental music by Jule Styne and a cast that included Sandy Baron, Leonardo Cimino, James Coco, Michael Constantine, Elisha Cook, Roger De Koven, James Frawley, John Karlen, Henry Lascoe, Christopher Plummer, Madeleine Sherwood, William Shust, Lionel Stander, Glenn Stensel, Murvyn Vye and Robert Weil. It ran for just five previews and eight performances. A 1968 revival at the Billy Rose Theatre ran 10 performances.
Al Pacino made his Broadway debut in the 1969 production of Does a Tiger Wear Necktie?, earning a Tony Award for his performance. He scored another Tony for his role in the 1977 revival of The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. The stage and film actor was last on Broadway in 1996 in a revival of Hughie, which he also directed. Pacino's other Broadway credits include Camino Real, King Richard III, American Buffalo, Chinese Coffee and Salome. He received the Academy Award for his work in the film "Scent of a Woman" and stars in the New Line motion picture "Simone."
—By Andrew Gans
