Part One � Voyage
The full cast has been announced for the Lincoln Center's American premiere of Tom Stoppard's trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, playing at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre from the 17 Oct 2006 - 11 Mar 2007.
Directed by Jack O'Brien , The Coast of Utopia will have a company of over 44 actors playing over 70 roles. Joining the the previously announced Brian F. O'Byrne (Alexander Herzen), Billy Crudup (Vissarion Belinsky), Josh Hamilton (Nicholas Ogarev), Ethan Hawke (Michael Bakunin), Jason Butler Harner (Ivan Turgenev), Amy Irving, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, David Harbour, and Martha Plimpton will be:
Bianca Amato, Mia Barron, Larry Bull, Denis Butkus, Michael Carlsen, Amanda Leigh, Anthony Cochrane, Patricia Conolly, David Cromwell, Adam Dannheisser, Matt Dickson, Aaron Krohn, Felicity LaFortune, Jennifer Lyon, David Manis, Andrew McGinn, Kellie Overbey, Scott Parkinson, David Pittu, Annie Purcell, Erika Rolfsrud, Brian Sgambati, Robert Stanton, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Baylen Thomas and David C. Wells.
Beginning in mid-19th century Russia during the repressive reign of Tsar Nicholas I, Tom Stoppard's sweeping epic spans a period of thirty years as it tells the panoramic story of a group of Russian writers, headed by the radical theorist and editor Alexander Herzen (Brian F. O'Byrne), the novelist Ivan Turgenev (Jason Butler Harner), the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky (Billy Crudup), the aristocrat-turned-anarchist Michael Bakunin (Ethan Hawke) and the poet Nicholas Ogarev (Josh Hamilton), who lead a band of like-minded countrymen in a revolutionary movement in which they strive to change and fix a political system by using their minds as their only weapon.
The action of The Coast of Utopia, which had its world premiere at London's National Theatre in 2002, begins in 1833 with -
Part One � Voyage, set in the Russian countryside as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg.Part Two - Shipwreck, begins thirteen years later outside Moscow and follows the characters' exile to Paris, Dresden and Nice.
Part Three - Salvage, takes place over a period of twelve years in London and Geneva.
Lincoln Center Theater will mount the three parts of The Coast of Utopia individually, rehearsing and performing each part in turn as the next opens.
During the final three and one-half weeks of the production's run audiences will have the opportunity to see all three parts in succession. And on three Saturdays - 24 Feb 2007, 3 Mar 2007 and 10 Mar 2007 � theatergoers will be able to see all three - Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage - in one-day marathons beginning at 11am.
The schedule for The Coast of Utopia is:
- Part One � Voyage
Previews: Tue 17 Oct 2006
Opens: Sun 5 Nov 2006 - Part Two � Shipwreck
Previews: Tue 5 Dec 2006
Opens: Thu 21 Dec 2006 - Part Three � Salvage
Previews: Tue 30 Jan 2007
Opens: Thu 15 Feb 2007
The Coast of Utopia is the third partnership between playwright Tom Stoppard and director Jack O'Brien following their collaboration on LCT's award-winning productions of 'Hapgood' and 'The Invention of Love'. LCT also produced Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia'.
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