Fool Moon, the acclaimed evening of New Vaudeville clowning that has brought Bill Irwin, David Shiner and the Red Clay Ramblers to Broadway twice before, will come back to Broadway for the holiday season, Nov. 17-Jan. 3, 1999. The comedy will most likely inhabit the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, according to production spokesperson Jackie Green (of the Boneau/Bryan Brown office, reached Sept. 15). The Atkinson's last tenant was Wait Until Dark.
Meanwhile, the show is currently Fool -ing around at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, Sept. 3-Oct. 4. (The official opening was Sept. 9). For information on the ACT mounting, call (415) 749-2228.
Broadway production spokesperson Green said the Fool Moon return will be substantially similar to the 1993 and 1995 incarnations: a series of sketches and stunts "featuring two grandmasters of physical lunacy in an evening of sly humor, chaos and music." In the show, Irwin plays his sweetly mischievous persona off Shiner's more astringent one. Some of their routines incorporate music by the Red Clay Ramblers, who also perform solo during the show.
Irwin, recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" Grant, developed his silent clown persona in The Regard of Flight and Largely New York. He directed and starred in an Off-Broadway production of Moliere's Scapin for Roundabout Theatre Company, co-starred in Waiting for Godot at Lincoln Center, and recently directed A Flea in Her Ear, also for Roundabout.
Fool Moon debuted on Broadway Feb. 25, 1993 for 207 performances, and returned for a limited 80-show holiday engagement Oct. 29, 1995.