Theatre News Wire

Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls announced today that he will direct a major revival and new adaptation of Measure for Measure, Shakespeare's darkly comic collision of vice and virtue, in Goodman Theatre's 2012/2013 season, March 9 - April 14, 2013. Also, director David Cromer announced partial casting for his production of Sweet Bird of Youth: Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominee Diane Lane appears as Princess Kosmonopolis and Finn Wittrock, who recently appeared in Broadway's Death of a Salesman with Philip Seymour Hoffman, is cast as the young-actor-turned-gigolo Chance Wayne. Complete casting to be announced soon. The production opens the Goodman's new season, September 15 - October 21; a September 24 Season Opening Benefit will take place at The Standard Club. 

On the heels of his triumphant The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill, Robert Falls returns to Shakespeare with Measure for Measure for the first time since his 2006 King Lear, which starred Stacy Keach-a production hailed "gargantuan in scale and volcanic in impact...brilliantly conceived" (Chicago Sun-Times) and "a macabre romp-big and wild and, in its lusty embrace of theatrical possibility, a tingly pleasure" (The Washington Post).

"Shakespeare's Measure for Measure has long been a favorite play of mine. It's a strikingly contemporary wild mix of comedy, drama and moral argument that is both daunting and thrilling to me. I relish the opportunity to explore it," said Robert Falls. Lust and the law clash wills in Measure for Measure. When the Duke of Vienna sets off on a diplomatic mission abroad he hands over power to the austere Lord Angelo, who enforces the city's long-dormant moral code with draconian zeal. But when a pious young nun comes to Angelo to plead for the life of her doomed brother, she sets in motion a series of events that test the limits of human will, and reveal a tangled web of desire and deception. Casting and creative team information to be announced.

Chicago native David Cromer makes his Goodman Theatre directing debut with Sweet Bird of Youth, a sensual, haunting theatrical journey laced with humor and Tennessee Williams' "characteristically gorgeous lyricism" (The New York Times). Into a tiny gulf coast hamlet drifts an improbable couple: the Princess Kosmonopolis (Diane Lane), a Hollywood legend fleeing the disastrous premiere of her latest epic, and Chance Wayne (Finn Wittrock), a young actor-turned-gigolo who has brought his new benefactress to his hometown in hopes of reclaiming his former glory. But when a youthful mistake surfaces that threatens their plans, they must confront crumbling dreams. Full casting and creative team information to be announced.

Diane Lane (Princess Kosmonopolis) is an Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominated actress. Lane began her career at age six at Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in Andrei Serban's Medea. Over the next six years she subsequently appeared in Serban's productions of Electra, The Trojan Women, The Good Woman of Szechuan and As You Like It, in productions both in New York and touring theater festivals around the world. Additional theater credits include Lincoln Center Theater's 1976/1977 production of The Cherry Orchard, Joseph Papp's Agamemnon at the New York Shakespeare Festival and Elizabeth Swados' Runaways at The Public Theater. Lane later reunited with Andrei Serban for Robert Brustein at American Repertory Theater in Twelfth Night, as Olivia opposite Cherry Jones' Viola/Cesario. Lane made her film debut opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in George Roy Hill's A Little Romance in 1978; her diverse filmography includes four films directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In 2002, Lane won the Best Actress award from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics and received an Academy Award nomination for her role as an adulterous wife in Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful. On television, she has appeared in a range of roles including Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange, and in an Emmy-nominated turn as Lorena in the CBS mini-series Lonesome Dove, opposite Robert Duvall and Angelica Huston.

Finn Wittrock (Chance Wayne) recently appeared on Broadway in Mike Nichols' Tony Award-winning Death of a Salesman opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman, for which he won a 2012 Theatre World Award and the 2012 Clarence Derwent Award. His off-Broadway credits include The Illusion at Signature Theatre Company and The Age of Iron at Classic Stage Company. Regional credits include The Blue Deep at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre Company; Candida at Berkshire Theatre Festival; The Laramie Project with The Mechanicals Theatre Group (where he is a member); and productions of The Matchmaker, A Midsummer Night's Dream and A Noise Within. Film and television credits include Darren Aronofsky's Noah, Harry's Law, Criminal Minds, Torchwood: Miracle Day, All My Children, The Beautiful Life, CSI: Miami, Halloweentown High, ER, Cold Case and Joel Schumacher's Twelve.