The Society of London Theatre has reported that the Oscar-winning American film actress Jessica Lange is set to make a West End return this autumn with a new production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Lange -- whose films include "A Thousand Acres," "Rob Roy," "Blue Sky" (Oscar), "Cape Fear," "Crimes of the Heart," "Sweet Dreams" and "Tootsie" (Oscar) -- made her West End debut in 1996 as Blanche Dubois in a sell-out production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, a role she previously played on Broadway.

She returns to dysfunctional family-land with another classic from one of America's pre-eminent 20th century playwrights. In O'Neill's 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Lange will play Mary Tyrone, the drug addicted wife and mother of a family on the edge, a part played by Katherine Hepburn in Sidney Lumet's 1962 film version.

The production will follow last year's hugely successful revival of O'Neill's epic The Iceman Cometh, starring another Hollywood veteran, Kevin Spacey. The multi award-winning Almeida production transferred to the West End's Old Vic before a Broadway run.

Long Day's Journey into Night will be produced by Bill Kenwright and directed by Garry Hynes. No further details regarding venue, additional casting or precise dates have yet been confirmed.

-- By Terri Paddock
What's On Stage, London