Feb. 18, 2005
by Matt Wolf
Tony-winner plucks plum role at Old Vic
London - It's Tony-winner Jennifer Ehle - not any of various Oscar-friendly names - who will play socialite Tracy Lord when The Philadelphia Story comes to the Old Vic Theater in May. The production, directed by Jerry Zaks, will co-star Vic artistic director Spacey as C.K. Dexter Haven. The casting of Ehle ends months of speculation that had everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Cameron Diaz playing the role, with Debra Messing and Laura Linney emerging as front-runners in recent weeks. But Ehle's stage chops are superior to almost all the other candidates, following credits on Broadway and in London that include her Tony-winning performance as Annie in the 2000 New York revival of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing.
The show opens May 10 at the Vic and is expected to run for at last 12 And probably 18 weeks. At present, it looks likely that Spacey will not be Able to perform the entire London stand because of his commitments to filming the new Superman film, in which he plays the villainous Lex Luthor.
Best-known from the Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy/Cary Grant movie in 1940, directed by George Cukor, Philip Barry's play has received relatively few major productions since its Broadway premiere in 1939, which also starred Hepburn.
The expectation is that this staging may transfer sometime in 2006 to Broadway, where Barry's comedy was last seen at Lincoln Center some 25 years ago, with Blythe Danner as Tracy.
Story concludes Spacey's first year running the venerable Old Vic, where the two-time Oscar-winner has been receiving some decidedly downbeat reviews for his work thus far.
Ehle's other credits include Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, opposite Colin Firth, on TV and the film Possession, with Jeremy Northam.
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