Samuel L. Jackson and Halle Berry May Go to The Mountaintop on Broadway

Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop will likely bow on Broadway in the fall of 2011 starring Hollywood darlings Samuel L. Jackson and Halle Berry, according to The New York Times. As previously reported, Kenny Leon (Fences) has been approached to direct.

The Mountaintop is set on the eve of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. After delivering his famous “from the mountaintop” speech, King retires to his hotel room, where he encounters a hotel maid who is not what she seems to be. The two-hander would be a Broadway debut for Oscar winner Berry (Monster's Ball) and Oscar nominee Jackson's first leading Broadway role. In 1990 he understudied the lead role of "Boy Willie" in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, a part he originated at Yale Repertory Theater.

The London production of The Mountaintop, which won the 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, starred David Harewood as Dr. King and Olivier Award nominee Lorraine Burroughs as the mysterious hotel maid Camae. No dates or venue has been announced for the Broadway production.