Uzo Aduba and Janet McTeer are returning to the stage. The respective “Orange Is the New Black” and “Jessica Jones” actresses are set to topline new plays by Lydia R. Diamond and Theresa Rebeck. Aduba will star in Diamond’s “Toni Stone,” an Off Broadway production directed by Pam MacKinnon. McTeer, meanwhile, will lead Rebeck’s “Bernhardt/Hamlet” on Broadway. Both plays are Roundabout Theatre Company commissions.
Running for a limited engagement at the Laura Pels Theatre beginning in May 2019, “Toni Stone” will see Aduba portray the first female pro baseball player in the Negro Leagues, Broadway World reports. “Toni Stone is an encyclopedia of baseball stats. She’s got a great arm. And she doesn’t understand why she can’t play with the boys,” the source summarizes. “Featuring a bullpen of players crossing age, race, and gender to portray all supporting roles, ‘Toni Stone’ is a vibrant new play about staying in the game, playing hard, playing smart, and playing your own way.”
Aduba’s other stage credits include “Godspell” and “Coram Boy.” She has won two Emmys for playing “OITNB’s” Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren. Next, Aduba will star in “Miss Virginia,” an indie drama about an inner city mother determined to make a better life for herself and her son.
“Stick Fly,” “Smart People,” and the play adaptation of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” are among Diamond’s works. Recently named American Conservatory Theater’s next artistic director, Tony winner MacKinnon has helmed productions of “The Parisian Woman,” “The Heidi Chronicles,” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
You won’t have to wait as long to catch “Bernhardt/Hamlet” — it is set to open Roundabout’s 2018–2019 Broadway season, Broadway World confirms. The play will run in a limited engagement at the American Airlines Theatre. Previews kick off September 1, the official opening will be September 25, and the closing date is November 18. Moritz von Stuelpnagel (“Hand to God”) is directing.
McTeer will take on the role of legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt in the play. “Mark Twain wrote, ‘There are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses. And then there is Sarah Bernhardt,’” “Bernhardt/Hamlet’s” synopsis reads. “In 1899, the international stage celebrity set out to tackle her most ambitious role yet: Hamlet.”
“Les Liaisons Dangereuses” and “The Taming of the Shrew” are among McTeer’s previous plays. She won a Tony in 1997 for her leading role in “A Doll’s House.” Most recently seen on “Jessica Jones” as the titular character’s long-lost mother, McTeer’s screen work includes Thea Sharrock’s “Me Before You” and Amber Tamblyn’s “Paint It Black.”
Rebeck created the Broadway-set musical drama “Smash,” which ran for two seasons on NBC. She has penned plays such as “What We’re Up Against,” “The Understudy,” and “Seminar.” Rebeck is also a screenwriter whose credits include “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Harriet the Spy.”
This collaboration between Rebeck and McTeer is exciting in and of itself, but it’s especially noteworthy since there are currently zero women-written plays on Broadway. The nine running productions — which include “Angels in America,” “Children of a Lesser God,” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” — cover a wide range of subject matter, yet none are from women scribes.
