NewsPHOTO CALL: The Real Thing, Starring Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Opens on Broadway; Red Carpet Arrivals, Curtain Call and Cast PartyEwan McGregor makes his Main Stem debut as a man searching for The Real Thing in Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway revival of the Tony Award-winning Tom Stoppard play, officially opening Oct. 30 at the American Airlines Theatre.
By
Matthew Blank
October 31, 2014
McGregor (Othello at the Donmar Warehouse) stars as Henry opposite Oscar nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal ("Crazy Heart"), also in her Broadway debut, as Annie.
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The Real Thing, Starring Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Opens on Broadway; Red Carpet Arrivals, Curtain Call and Cast Party
The cast also features Josh Hamilton ("American Horror Story: Coven," "Gracepoint," Reasons to be Happy at MCC, Dead Accounts) as Max, Tony winner Cynthia Nixon (Rabbit Hole) as Charlotte, West End actor Ronan Raftery (The Comedy Of Errors at Shakespeare's Globe, The Shawshank Redemption in the West End, The Silver Tassie at the National Theatre) as Billy, Alex Breaux (a recent Juilliard graduate, seen in Much Ado About Nothing in Central Park and in The Sky and the Limit at 59E59 Theaters) as Brodie and Madeline Weinstein (recent graduate of Northwestern University) as Debbie.
Nixon is a board member of Roundabout Theatre Company and returns to their stage following her roles in Distracted and The Women. She made history when she appeared in the 1984 production of The Real Thing and simultaneously performed in Hurlyburly.
The creative team includes David Zinn (set design), Kaye Voyce (costume design), Mark Barton (lighting design) and Bray Poor (sound design).
Stoppard's The Real Thing premiered Nov. 16, 1982, at The Strand Theatre in London. The Real Thing is the winner of the 1984 Tony Award for Best Play and returns to the Broadway stage having last been produced 14 years ago.
Here's how Roundabout bills the "stirring and sensual" new production of The Real Thing: "Henry is a playwright not so happily married to Charlotte, the lead actress in his play about a marriage on the verge of collapse. When Henry’s affair with their friend Annie threatens to destroy his own marriage, he discovers that life has started imitating art. After Annie leaves her husband so she and Henry can begin a new life together, he can’t help but wonder whether their love is fiction or the real thing. Delectably witty and deeply affecting, The Real Thing takes a daring glimpse at relationships, fidelity, and the passions that often blur our perception of love."
Filmed in 2023, the one-night-only event featured Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Peter Friedman, and more from the Ahrens and Flaherty musical's original cast.
Surrounded by period-accurate, 19th-century holiday decorations lit via candlelight, the 70-minute production is based on Dickens' own script of the classic.