'The Constant Wife' extends limited run by one week

The Roundabout Theatre Company's production of W. Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife, which opened at the American AIrlines Theatre on the 16 Jun 2005, following previews from the 27 May, as extended its limited run by one week. The comedy, which was booking to the 14 Aug 2005, is now booking to the 21 Aug.

The Constant Wife is a social comedy of marital maneuvers in 1920's upper-class London. Constance Middleton discovers that her husband is having an affair with her best friend. Rather than humiliating herself and others, she denies the affair, defends the two, and sets about turning bad luck, unfaithful friends, local gossip and a broken heart to her own advantage.

The Constant Wife opened to mostly excellent notices, Howard Kissell of the New York Daily News said "It is stimulating as well as enormously entertaining." and Michael Sommers of the Sta-Ledger wrote "A scintillating sin-and-sherry British comedy from 1926, a delightful summer confection." However, Charles Isherwood, writing for the New York Times, was more critical, writing "An elaborate comic trifle, all glittering surface shellacking an emotional void."

Our own reviewer Polly Wittenberg said of the comedy "A delightful new revival of Somerset Maugham's well made play." You can read the rest of Polly's review and more of what the critics said Here.

The cast stars Kate Burton (Constance Middleton), Lynn Redgrave (Mrs. Culver), Michael Cumpsty (John Middleton) and John Dossett as (Bernard Kersal), in this new Broadway production directed by Mark Brokaw.

The cast also includes Enid Graham (Martha), Kathryn Meisle (Marie-Louise), Denis Homes (Bentley), John Ellison Conlee (Mortimer Durham) and Kathleen McNenney (Barbara Fawcett).

The design team for The Constant Wife includes Alan Moyer (sets), Michael Krass (costumes) Mary Louise Geiger (lights) with sound and original music by David Van Tieghem.

The Broadway premiere of The Constant Wife was at the Maxine Elliott�s Theatre on 29 Nov 1926. The last Broadway production on Broadway began performances at the Shubert Theatre on the 14 Apr 1975.