Saturday, July 02, 2011

Venus In Fur, Directed By Scranton Native Walter Bobbie, To Transfer To Broadway This Fall


Walter Bobbie, Scranton native and Tony-winning director of the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago, will be directing David Ives's play Venus in Fur on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater in New York City. Previews will begin Thursday, October 13th, 2011 with an Opening Night Tuesday, November 8th. Venus in Fur is part of the 2011-2012 Manhattan Theater Club series. The limited run will conclude Sunday, December 18th, 2011.

Venus In Fur originally premiered Off-Broadway in January 2010; originally scheduled to run a month, the play was extended multiple times and closed March 25th, 2010. The original lead -- 2011 Tony nominee Nina Arianda (Born Yesterday) -- will be reprising her role of Vanda that she originated Off-Broadway. Actor Hugh Dancy will be playing playwright Thomas (originally played Off-Broadway by Wes Bentley).

From Broadway.com:

"As David Ives’ new play begins, we meet a modern-day playwright/director who has written an adaptation of Venus in Fur, the 1870 novel by Leopold Sacher-Masoch that became infamous when the author’s last name inspired the term “sado-masochism” to describe the interplay of sex and power in the book. An actress arrives to audition, her bag filled with S&M gear and period costumes. Soon the playwright is drawn into reading his own script with this mysterious young woman, with breaks to argue about the meaning of the story and the motivation of the characters."

In addition to Venus In Fur and Chicago, Walter Bobbie's other Broadway directing credits include White Christmas, High Fidelity, Footloose, and the 2005 revival of Sweet Charity (which includes a reference to Scranton in one of the lyrics).

Click here for a previous blog entry on Walter Bobbie.

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