Is Kathleen Turner Broadway-Bound in Matthew Lombardo's High?

Kathleen Turner may be headed back to Broadway in the spring in Matthew Lombardo’s drama High, according to the Hartford Courant website. The paper reports that a casting notice has been posted indicating that rehearsals will begin in February 2011 for a Broadway production in March, directed by Rob Ruggiero. No theater has been announced.

High debuted at TheaterWorks in Hartford on July 2 and played engagements at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in September and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in October. The Broadway casting notice is for the role of a priest, which was played in the premiere production by Michael Berresse. The third member of the cast, Evan Jonigkeit, is expected to continue with the play.

High centers on Sister Jamison Connelly (Turner), who finds her faith tested after agreeing to sponsor a 19-year-old hustler and drug user (Jonigkeit) in an effort to combat his addiction. Struggling between the knowledge she possesses as a rehabilitation counselor and her own moral convictions, she begins to question the belief in miracles and whether people can find the courage to change.

Turner received Tony nominations for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which transferred to London’s West End after its 2005 Broadway run, and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She has appeared on Broadway in The Graduate and Indiscretions and directed the off-Broadway revival of Crimes of the Heart. Her many screen credits include Marley & Me, Serial Mom, The War of the Roses, Prizzi’s Honor, The Accidental Tourist and Romancing the Stone as well as a recent stint on TV’s Californication.

Lombardo made his Broadway debut last season with the Tallulah Bankhead bio-play Looped, directed by Ruggiero and featuring a Tony-nominated performance by Valerie Harper, and is also the author of the Katharine Hepburn bio-play Tea at Five. The Courant reports that High “has been further developed since its run this summer in Hartford.”