November 12, 1999
By Jesse McKinley
The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard's shimmering exploration of love and betrayal, is confirmed for Broadway in the spring. The play, which finished a critically acclaimed run last summer at the Donmar Warehouse in London, will open on the West End in January, before transferring to the Belasco Theater in mid-April.
The production is to include at least four actors from the Donmar version in principal roles, including Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle as Henry and Annie, an English playwright and his lover, roles played by Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close during the play's 1984 Broadway run.
Both Dillane and Ms. Ehle received immaculate reviews in London, as did David Leveaux, the director, who also staged last year's Broadway revival of Electra.
Stoppard said the Donmar production had a more intimate feel from the play's showier incarnation on Broadway. "The Donmar is more on the scale of an Off Broadway house," he said, speaking from London, "and I think this production took its characteristics from that."
That includes Dillane's performance, which Stoppard said had "such integrity as to scare the life out of an author."
Some Broadway insiders may be surprised that the Belasco will house the production as James Joyce's 'The Dead', which completes its run at Playwrights Horizon on Nov. 28, had been widely rumored to be in line for the theater.
But officials for that show say the Belasco is still a strong possibility, as The Dead would likely play only a limited run. Martin Sherman's play, Rose, has also been mentioned for the theater, burt now looks unlikely to land there.
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