Seminar: Alan Rickman returning to Broadway

Two-time Tony Award nominee, Emmy Award and Golden Globe winner Alan Rickman will return to Broadway starring in the World Premiere of Theresa Rebeck's comedy Seminar, directed by Sam Gold in his Broadway debut. The production will open at a Shubert Theatre to be announced this fall.

With additional casting underway, the full cast, design team, dates and a theater are to be announced in the coming weeks.

In Seminar, four young writers are thrilled to be participating in a private seminar taught by the brilliant but unpredictable Leonard (Rickman), an international literary legend. But as Leonard deems some students more promising than others, tensions arise. Sex is used as a weapon, alliances are made and broken, and it's not just the wordplay that turns vicious...

Seminar is being produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Finn and Jill Furman.

An internationally-renowned actor of stage, screen and television, Alan Rickman returns to the Broadway stage for the first time since being nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as 'Elyot' in the 2002 production of Noel Coward's 'Private Lives.' He previously made his Broadway debut and earned his first Tony Award nomination as 'Valmont' in the 1987 U.S. premiere production of 'Les Liasions Dangereuses.' On film, he is perhaps best known for his performances as "Professor Severus Snape" in the "Harry Potter" franchise and "Hans Gruber" in the 1988 hit "Die Hard," as well as award-winning roles in such films as "Sense and Sensibility" and, more recently, "Sweeney Todd" and "Bottle Shock."

For nearly a decade, Theresa Rebeck's more than a dozen plays have been produced in New York, as well as regionally and internationally. Seminar marks the first time one of her works will be produced as a commercial Broadway production. ('Mauritius,' her acclaimed 2007 Broadway debut, was presented by Manhattan Theatre Club.) In addition to her work as a playwright, Ms. Rebeck is also a respected, award-winning television writer and producer ("NYPD Blue," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," the upcoming NBC series "Smash"), film writer ("Harriet the Spy," "Seducing Charlie Barke"r) and novelist (the recent "Twelve Rooms with a View" and "Three Girls and Their Brother").

Sam Gold his making Broadway directional debut with Seminar. A well established Off-Broadway director, he most notably won a 2010 Obie Award for directing two productions, 'Circle Mirror Transformation' and 'The Aliens,' both written by Annie Baker.