Continuing her award-winning portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II, Academy Award winner Helen Mirren will star in a limited engagement of Peter Morgan's play beginning in February 2015 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, producers announced Aug. 6.
The Broadway production of The Audience follows a record-breaking run at London's Gielgud Theatre in 2013 for which Mirren won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play. Morgan is also the screenwriter of the Academy Award-nominated 2006 film "The Queen," which earned Mirren an Oscar for her performance.
Two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, An Inspector Calls) will again direct. Previews will begin Feb. 17, 2015, prior to an official opening March 8. The limited engagement will run through June 28.
It was previously reported that playwright Morgan is expected to update portions of the script for American audiences. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair may be among the new characters to appear when The Audience arrives on Broadway. The Audience was previously broadcast in cinemas as part of NT Live.
"For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said, not even to their spouses," press notes state. "The Audience imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister uses these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional — sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive. In turn, the Queen can't help but reveal her own self as she advises, consoles and, on occasion, teases. These private audiences chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age, from the beginning of Elizabeth II's reign to today. Politicians come and go through the revolving door of electoral politics, while she remains constant, waiting to welcome her next Prime Minister." Mirren won the Academy Award for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen," as well as the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actress. She received Academy Award nominations for "The Last Station," "Gosford Park" and "The Madness of King George." Mirren is a two-time Tony Award nominee for A Month in the Country and Dance of Death. She has also appeared onstage in the West End, the Fringe, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in Orpheus Descending, Mourning Becomes Electra and Phèdre, among others. In 2014 she was honored with the BAFTA Fellowship for her outstanding career in film.
The complete cast of The Audience will be announced at a later date.
The production is designed by six-time Tony Award winner Bob Crowley with lighting by two-time Tony Award winner Rick Fisher, sound by Tony Award winner Paul Arditti and music by Paul Englishby.
The Audience is produced by Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions, Robert Fox and Andy Harries.
The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre is located at 236 West 45th Street. Visit theaudiencebroadway.com for more information.
