Tyne Daly to bring Master Class to West End
Preview by Jack Foley
TYNE Daly is to bring theatre and opera director Stephen Wadsworth’s new production of Terrence McNally’s Master Class to the West End following its critically acclaimed, sell-out run on Broadway.
The production will run at the Vaudeville Theatre for 14 weeks only from January 21 to April 28, with press night on 7 February 2012.
McNally’s play about Maria Callas takes audiences to one of her famous master classes, where, late in her own career, she dares the next generation to make the same sacrifices and rise to the same heights that made her the most celebrated, the most reviled and the most controversial singer of her time.
Terrence McNally’s Master Class received its world premiere at the John Golden Theatre in 1995, wining the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play.
Stephen Wadsworth’s Manhattan Theatre Club production opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre earlier this year. Tyne Daly first appeared in Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Master Class at the Kennedy Center.
Daly is, of course, best known on television for her portrayal of Detective Mary Beth Lacey in Cagney and Lacey, for which she received four Emmy Awards.
For her roles as Maxine Gray in Judging Amy and Alice Henderson in Christy she received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama. For the former she also won Golden Globe Award.
Her many Broadway credits include Rose in Gypsy, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, Mme Arkadina in The Seagull and Rabbit Hole. Her film credits include The Enforcer alongside Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry.
Writer Terrence McNally has won four Tony Awards for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and his musical books for Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Ragtime.
More recent Broadway revivals of his plays include The Ritzand Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. His other plays include A Perfect Ganesh, Corpus Christi, Lips Together and It’s Only a Play.
Theatre and opera director Stephen Wadsworth has worked for Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, Edinburgh Festival, Nederlandse Opera, Seattle Opera and in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto and Santa Fe.
Tickets go on sale today (November 4, 2011) for Master Class and further casting will be announced shortly.
Dates: January 21 to April 28, 2012
Address: Vaudeville Theatre, 404 Strand, London, WC2R 0NH
Performances: Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm/Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30pm
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including 1 interval
Ticket prices: £40 – £12.50 opening weeks/52.50 – £25 post opening
Box Office: 0844 412 4663