McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane Books the Schoenfeld, Amid Rumors that Chris Rock Will Star

Martin McDonagh's latest play, A Behanding in Spokane, will open on March 4, 2010, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, according to Variety. The play’s director, John Crowley, will certainly feel at home: The Schoenfeld is currently home to his smash-hit production of A Steady Rain, starring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman. (The Behanding booking presumably puts the kibosh on hopes that Craig and Jackman will extend very far past their announced closing date of December 6.)

Casting for the four-character Behanding has not been announced, but Variety reports that Chris Rock, Sam Rockwell and Zoe Kazan “have long been said to been eyeing roles.” McDonagh’s first American-set play (and the first to originate on Broadway) concerns a man searching for his missing hand, two con artists out to make a few hundred bucks and an overly curious hotel clerk.

McDonagh’s Broadway plays are The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lonesome West, The Pillowman (directed by Crowley) and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, all of which received Tony nominations for Best Play. His play The Cripple of Inishmaan has been produced twice off-Broadway. The scribe received the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2006 for his film Six Shooter and his most recent film, In Bruges, received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

A Behanding in Spokane will be produced on Broadway by Robert Fox.