Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig Confirmed for Broadway Play A Steady Rain
It’s official: Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig have been lured to Broadway to co-star in the two character play A Steady Rain by Keith Huff. The superstars will begin previews on September 10 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre and open on September 29 for what’s being billed as “a strictly limited 12-week engagement through December 6." Tony nominee John Crowley (The Pillowman) will direct.
A Steady Rain tells the story of two Chicago cops who are lifelong friends and their differing accounts of a few harrowing days that changed their lives forever. According to a synopsis by Chicagos Dramatists, where the play had its professional world premiere in 2007, during a routine domestic disturbance call, the policemen return a panic-stricken Vietnamese boy to a man claiming to be the boy’s uncle. When the man is revealed to be a cannibalistic serial killer and the boy his latest victim, the men’s friendship is put to the test when one of them has to take the fall.
The 90-minute-long play was first performed in 2006 at New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater. After its premiere production, it was remounted in February 2008 at Chicago’s Royal George Theatre, winning Jefferson Awards for Best New Work and Best Production.
Jackman won the 2004 Best Actor Tony and every other theatrical prize for his performance as Peter Allen in the musical The Boy from Oz and was nominated for an Olivier Award for the London production of Oklahoma!. In his home country of Australia, Jackman has starred in Sunset Boulevard and Beauty and the Beast, among other musicals. The star of the current feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Jackman has appeared in three X-Men movies as well as Australia, Deception, The Prestige, Van Helsing and many more. He hosted the 2009 Academy Awards ceremony and has hosted the Tony Awards twice.
Craig began his career in Britain’s National Youth Theatre and made his stage debut as Agamemnon in Troilus and Cressida. He has worked with the Royal National Theatre (as Joe Pitt in Angels in America), the Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic (Hurlyburly), and was nominated for a 2002 Evening Standard Award for his performance in A Number at the Royal Court. In addition to starring in the two most recent James Bond films (Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale), he has appeared in films such as Defiance, The Golden Compass, Munich, Layer Cake and Road to Perdition. He will make his Broadway debut in A Steady Rain.
Set and costume design for A Steady Rain are by Scott Pask, with lighting design by Hugh Vanstone and original music and sound design by Mark Bennett.
A Steady Rain will be produced by Frederick Zollo, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Raymond L. Gaspard, Frank Gero, Cheryl Wiesenfeld, Jeffrey Sine, Michael Rose and Robert Cole.
