The cast is set for the Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance. Tony winner John Lithgow and nominee Martha Plimpton will join the previously speculated three-time Tony winner Glenn Close in the Pam MacKinnon-helmed project. They will be joined by Tony winner Lindsay Duncan, Bob Balaban and Olivier winner Clare Higgins. The limited engagement will run for 18 weeks beginning October 20 at the Golden Theatre. Opening night is set for November 20.
A Delicate Balance follows Agnes (Close) and Tobias (Lithgow), a long-married couple who must maintain their equilibrium as over the course of a weekend they welcome home their 36-year-old daughter (Plimpton) following the collapse of her fourth marriage. They must also give shelter to their friends (Balaban and Higgins), all the while tolerating Agnes’ alcoholic sister Claire (Duncan). Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play was first seen on the Great White Way in 1966 and was later revived by Lincoln Center in 1996, starring Elaine Stritch.
A Delicate Balance will mark Close’s return to the Great White Way after 17 years. The six-time Oscar nominee received Tony awards for her performances in Sunset Boulevard, The Real Thing and Death and the Maiden.
Lithgow won Tony awards for his performances in The Changing Room and Sweet Smell of Success; his additional Broadway credits include The Columnist, All My Songs and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He received Oscar nominations for The World According to Garb and Terms of Endearment. He will star in King Lear this summer in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production.
Plimpton recently starred in the London premiere of Other Desert Cities. She was nominated for a Tony award for her performances in Pal Joey, Top Girls and The Coast of Utopia. Additionally, she has appeared on Broadway in Cymbeline, Shining City and Sixteen Wounded.
Duncan took home the Tony for Private Lives and Les Liaisons Dangeruses, and has appeared on stage in London in productions that include Hay Fever, That Face, Mouth to Mouth and The Homecoming. Balaban’s Broadway credits include Plaza Suite, Speed-the-Plow and The Inspector General (for which he received a Tony nod). Higgins has three Olivier Awards to her name for her performances in Vincent in Brixton, Sweet Bird of Youth and Hecuba. She was nominated for a Tony for Vincent in Brixton.
The play will feature scenic design by Santo Loquasto, costume design by Ann Roth and lighting design by Brian MacDevitt.