Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons to Return to Broadway in Impressionism

Tony Award winners Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons will return to Broadway to co-star in the world premiere of Impressionism, a new American play by Michael Jacobs. Directed by Tony Award-winner Jack O'Brien, the play is set to open in Spring 2009.

The story of a world-traveling photojournalist and a New York gallery owner who help repair each others' broken lives, Impressionism marks Allen's first appearance on a Broadway stage since her Tony Award-nominated performance in 1989's The Heidi Chronicles. A year earlier, her Broadway debut in Lanford Wilson's Burn This earned Allen a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She has since received Academy Award nominations for her roles in The Contender, The Crucible and Nixon. Allen's other major film roles include Compromising Positions, Manhunter, Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, In Country, Ethan Fromme, Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Ice Storm, Face/Off, Pleasantville, The Notebook, The Bourne Supremacy, The Upside of Anger, Bonneville and The Bourne Ultimatum, as well as the upcoming Death Race 2000 and Hachiko: A Dog's Story.

Irons last appearance on Broadway was also his first: In 1984, he made his Broadway debut co-starring with Glenn Close in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, a role that earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in Play. Other theater credits include the original London cast of Godspell; the New York City Opera's production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music and London stagings of Embers and Never So Good. Irons won the New York Critics Best Actor Award in 1988 for the film Dead Ringers and the Oscar for Best Actor in 1990 for Reversal of Fortune. His other films include Nijinsky, Betrayal, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Mission, Kafka, Damage, The House of the Spirits, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Stealing Beauty, Lolita, The Man in the Iron Mask, Callas Forever, Being Julia, Merchant of Venice, Casanova, Kingdom of Heaven, Eragon and The Lion King, for which Irons provided the voice of Scar. On TV, Irons earned an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe for his appearance in Brideshead Revisited, plus Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for starring in Elizabeth I.

Jacobs wrote the Broadway comedy Cheaters, which ran for one month at the Biltmore Theatre in 1978. In addition to writing fifteen television TV series, he produced the movie Quiz Show, which was nominated for an Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Picture in 1994.

Jack O'Brien won Tony Awards for his direction of The Coast of Utopia, Henry IV and Hairspray. His other work on Broadway includes The Most Happy Fella, Porgy and Bess, Two Shakespearean Actors, Damn Yankees, The Little Foxes, Getting Away with Murder, More to Love, The Full Monty, The Invention of Love, Imaginary Friends and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

A design team and additional casting for Impressionism will be announced at a later date.