The casting is intriguing, to say the least. Jake Gyllenhaal was recently announced as the lead in the Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson’s tempestuous 1980s drama “Burn This,” slated to open next spring. Gyllenhaal will be taking on the role of Pale, a high-octane New Jersey restaurant manager who bursts into the Manhattan loft that his gay, just-deceased brother, Robbie, shared with Anna, Robbie’s longtime dance partner and choreographer, who is in deep mourning for him.In the original, 1987 production, John Malkovich brought searing heat to his brawls with Joan Allen’s Anna (a role for which she won a Tony Award). Writing in the New York Times, critic Frank Rich observed, “Mr. Malkovich's Pale is a latter-day Stanley Kowalski, a blue-collar animal out to claw through the genteel veneer of the downtown esthete Anna.” In 2002, Edward Norton imbued the role with his own brand of intensity in an off-Broadway revival.Like Malkovich and Norton, Gyllenhaal is adept at conveying sensitivity in a tortured persona, a talent he has put to good use as the star-crossed gay lover in the Ang Lee film “Brokeback Mountain” and, in his Broadway debut, as the romantic tragedian in Nick Payne’s brainy “Constellations.” Whether he will find lighter shades of Pale to some degree depends on the rest of the cast, which has not yet been announced — in addition to Anna, the play’s characters include Larry, Robbie and Anna’s witty gay roommate, and Burton, her low-wattage boyfriend. Still, even if the actors for these parts remain unknown quantities, the blazing material is sure to find an able and apt director in Michael Mayer, who won a Tony Award for the erotically charged musical “Spring Awakening.”Set to open March 6, 2017, the revival will mark the beginning of a new life for the Hudson Theatre, which was built in 1903, but has not hosted a play in 50 years. The intimate playhouse underwent a major renovation under the ownership of the Ambassador Theatre Group, the international arts organization that established a beachhead on Broadway in 2013 with its acquisition of the Lyric Theatre, currently home to Cirque du Soleil’s “Paramour.”Gyllenhaal has been an increasingly prominent player in New York theater since 2012, when he starred off-Broadway in Payne’s “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet.” After “Constellations,” he appeared as Seymour in the special Encores presentation of the musical “Little Shop of Horrors.” And, during one of the commercial breaks of last June’s Tony Awards telecast, he joined Sean Hayes in a duet rendition of “A Whole New World.”Gyllenhaal will continue to exercise his musical chops this fall when he essays the role of George Seurat in benefit performances of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George,” which will co-star Annaleigh Ashford as the artist’s muse, Dot. Originally supposed to be a one-off for the City Center Annual Gala on October 24, it sold out so fast that two more performances, on October 25 and 26, were added. Could a musical debut on Broadway be far behind for the versatile actor?
↧