Swoosie Kurtz, Brian O'Byrne and Laila Robins star. Both Kurtz and O'Byrne were nominated for Tony Awards, as was director Doug Hughes and the play itself. O'Byrne won the Tony Award.
The play will be part of the 2005-06 season at San Francisco's Curran Theater. Doug Hughes, who helmed the work in New York, will also man the West Coast premiere. No casting has been announced.
It is also set to play the Studio Theatre in St. Louis and Alley Theatre in Houston. New productions are also planned for Australia and London in 2005.
The play's brief preview period on Broadway began on April 28, just two weeks after it ended a praised MCC run Off-Broadway. It opened on May 4.
Frozen connects the lives of three strangers involved in a child's disappearance: the mother of the child (Kurtz), the kidnapper (O'Byrne) and an American academic studying serial killers (Robins). Rumors about a quick transfer to Broadway began soon after Frozen opened in early March to largely rave reviews. The show closed April 10 at the East 13th Street Theatre (usually home to Classic Stage Company). The Broadway production is capitalized at $1.5 million.
MCC, which chose to back the venture itself rather than go with commercial Broadway producers, is the leading producer of the production, with some MCC board members also playing producing roles. Frozen is the first commercial Broadway transfer in the nonprofit's history. Wit, another MCC show, almost made it to Broadway, but eventually settled into a long run at the Union Square Theatre.
The complete list of producers runs: MCC Theatre (Robert Lupone, Bernard Telsey, artistic directors; William Cantler, associate artistic director; John G. Schultz, executive director), Harold Newman, Zollo/Paleologos & Jeffrey Sine, Roy Gabay, Lorie Cowen Levy & Beth Smith, Thompson H. Rogers, Swinsky/ Filerman/ Hendel, Sirkin/Mills/Baldassare and Darren Bagert.
Circle in the Square's in-the-round space partially mirrors the seating set-up of the CSC venue on 13th Street, which has seats on three sides of the stage. MCC's artistic directors Bernard Telsey and Robert LuPone said they wanted to recapture on Broadway the intimacy of the Off-Broadway mounting.
Frozen was Lavery's first work to get a production at the prestigious National Theatre and is the British playwright's most significant stage success to date. This fall, MCC will stage the world premiere of another Lavery play Last Easter. Hughes will again direct.
The design team for Frozen includes Hugh Landwehr (set), Catherine Zuber (costume), Clifton Taylor (lighting), Angelina Avallone (make-up and tattoo) and David Van Tieghem (sound) — who also provides original music. Rick Sordelet handles fight direction and Stephen Gabis serves as dialect coach.
