Broadway alum Tam Mutu has joined the cast of The Secret Garden at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre; he will play Archibald Craven, the bitter uncle Mary Lennox must live with. Lennox will be played by Bea Corley. After 25 years, the production returned to the stage at Washington, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company from November 15, 2017 through December 31, 2017. The tuner is scheduled to play at the 5th Avenue Theatre from April 14 through May 6.
As previously reported, the Broadway-aimed production features The Secret Garden's original Tony Award-winning star Daisy Eagan, this time in the role of Martha. Directed by David Armstrong, the cast features Tony nominee Josh Young, Lizzie Klemperer, Charlie Franklin and Seán G. Griffin. The cast also includes Guthrie Greenwood Bettinger and Coleman Hunter alternating the role of Colin, as well as Marianne Owen as Mrs. Medlock.
Mutu appeared on Broadway in the title role of Doctor Zhivago after previously starring in the Donmar Warehouse production of City of Angels in London. As previously announced, he will also star alongside Scarlett Strallen in The New Yorkers at New York City Center Encores! from March 22 through March 26.
Based on the 1911 novel of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the book and lyrics are by Marsha Norman, with music by Lucy Simon. Orphaned while living in India, 10-year-old Mary Lennox (Corley) returns to Yorkshire, England to live with her embittered, reclusive Uncle Archibald (Mutu), whom she has never met. There, the ill-tempered and lonely Mary meets Martha (Eagan), a chambermaid, who tells her of a secret garden which belonged to her aunt Lily before she died. Mary's search for the garden introduces her to a slew of other characters and a spirited robin that seems to be trying to talk to her.