Producer Scott Rudin Addresses Decision to Depart Broadway's Clybourne Park
The future of the upcoming Broadway production of Pulitzer Prize-winning play Clybourne Park is in question now that lead producer Scott Rudin has departed the project after a disagreement with playwright Bruce Norris. On January 31 Rudin decided to leave behind his producing duties after Norris opted not to participate as an actor in Rudin's upcoming HBO pilot The Corrections, after months of negotiations.
“Bruce Norris came in twice to audition for The Corrections and subsequently spent many months negotiating every point in a four-year agreement to appear in the show,” Rudin said in a statement to the New York Times. “Mr. Norris called to tell me—after every issue had been resolved in his favor—that he had decided not to appear in the show, and had in fact during the negotiation made a series of what he termed more and more outrageous demands in the hope that we would turn him down, and that he would not have to face the responsibility of reneging on a commitment he made.” The Corrections, a TV adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's best-selling 2001 novel about a trio of adult children who return to their parents' Ohio home for one last Chirstmas together, recently began production in New York with a cast featuring Dianne Weist, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
"I think [Norris is] a wonderful playwright, and an equally wonderful actor," Rudin continued, "but I am unwilling to support or de facto condone this behavior and have decided not to proceed with Clybourne Park, A Parallelogram, or with the production of a new play I commissioned from Mr. Norris. I look forward to seeing his next play as a member of the paying audience.
No official announcement has been made as to if the production is completely canceled (the press office previously attached to the play is no longer representing the production), but Rudin himself says the show should still have a future. "Clybourne Park is a fabulous play and I hope Bruce finds somebody else to produce it. I have encouraged our investors to stay with the play. It deserves to be seen on Broadway.”
Rudin is currently represented on Broadway by the blockbuster musical The Book of Mormon. He has also overseen Tony-winning productions of Fences, God of Carnage, The History Boys and Doubt in addition to many other productions including The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Jerusalem, The House of Blue Leaves, Exit the King, Shining City and Faith Healer. His many notable film credits include The Social Network, Revolutionary Road, No Country For Old Men, The Hours and Zoolander.
Clybourne Park opened at off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons on February 21, 2010. The show has been mounted in London, where it won the Olivier Award for Best New Play, and had major productions in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The planned Broadway production is currently running at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum through February 26. The Broadway mounting was set to open April 12 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
