The Shawshank Redemption posts early closing notices
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THE Shawshank Redemption has posted early closing notices at Wyndham’s Theatre. Initially booking until February 14, 2010, it will now close on Sunday, November 29, 2009, after 100 performances.
According to the play’s producers, an extensive tour culminating in a return to Dublin where it premiered earlier this year, is planned for 2010.
Previously Posted: This autumn, Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns’ new stage adaptation of the 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption, receives its UK premiere at Wyndham’s Theatre where it opens on September 13, 2009 (previews from September 4).
The 20-strong cast is led by American actors Kevin Anderson and Reg E Cathey, who play Andy Dufresne and Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding, two inmates who become friends after the former is wrongly imprisoned for murdering his wife and her lover.
Based on the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film adaptation starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.
Anderson’s theatre credits include Death of a Salesman, for which he received a Tony Award nomination; Come Back, Little Sheba (Broadway); the London production of Sunset Boulevard (Adelphi Theatre), in which he originated the role of Joe Gillis; and the West End transfer of Orphans, alongside Albert Finney. He is a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
On screen, he has starred in Sleeping with the Enemy and Charlotte’s Web, both with Julia Roberts (film); and Nothing Sacred (TV).
Although Cathey is best known for his role as Norman Wilson in The Wire, he has appeared on the New York stage in Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew and The Green Bird.
The Shawshank Redemption premiered at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre in May.
The production is initially booking at Wyndham’s Theatre until February 14, 2010.