Horton Foote's Orphans' Home Cycle Eyes Fall 2010 Broadway Transfer

Rumors have swirled about a possible Broadway transfer for Horton Foote’s Orphans’ Home Cycle, the trilogy of nine hour-long plays that is currently running at the Signature Theatre Company. Producer Daryl Roth and director Michael Wilson now tell The New York Times that a Broadway production is being planned for fall 2010 to allow time to put a marketing plan in place for the three-part theatrical event. Parts One (The Story of a Childhood) and Two (The Story of a Marriage) of the trilogy have opened to critical acclaim; Part Three (The Story of a Family) begins previews on January 7 and will open on January 26. The off-Broadway run is scheduled to end on March 28.

“We were just concerned we wouldn’t be able to give it the best kick-off we could by opening in the spring,” Roth told the Times, citing the confusion many theatergoers apparently felt about the Tony-winning trilogy The Norman Conquests, which failed to recoup its investment after opening in April 2009. “We especially needed more time to market this properly and put everything in place without feeling rushed.”

The Times reports that producers had a chance to move Orphans into the Neil Simon Theatre (currently the home of Ragtime, which closes January 10, and future home of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies, which opens in November) for a limited run this spring, but decided not to pursue that scenario. Two Shubert houses, the Lyceum (booked for spring by the play Looped) and the Golden, had also been discussed. Roth’s son, Jordan, is president of Jujamcyn Theatres, so presumably one of their houses might be in contention for a fall opening.

Director Wilson said that talks are being planned with the producers of both The Norman Conquests and The Coast of Utopia (the Tony-winning trilogy that ran at Lincoln Center Theater during the 2006-07 season) regarding the best mix of “marathon” performances and evenings in which only one part of the trilogy would be presented.

Set in Foote’s fictitious town of Harrison, Texas, and based partly on the childhood of the late playwright's father and the courtship and marriage of his parents, The Orphans’ Home Cycle spans the lives of three families over three decades. The 22 actors in the production play multiple roles, and several track their characters through time in the cycle’s nine plays.

The off-Broadway ensemble of The Orphans’ Home Cycle includes Devon Abner, Mike Boland, Pat Bowie, Leon Addison Brown, James DeMarse, Hallie Foote, Justin Fuller, Jasmine Amii Harrison, Bill Heck, Henry Hodges, Annalee Jefferies, Virginia Kull, Maggie Lacey, Gilbert Owour, Jenny Dare Paulin, Pamela Payton-Wright, Bryce Pinkham, Stephen Plunkett, Emily Robinson, Lucas Caleb Rooney, Dylan Riley Snyder and Charles Turner.

Although a 2010 Best Play Tony nomination doesn’t appear to be in the cards, The Orphans’ Home Cycle has been nominated for consideration for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Drama; a win would presumably give a boost to a future Broadway production.