Mark Rylance-Led Farinelli and the King Will Transfer to London's West End

Three-time Tony winner Mark Rylance is returning to the West End—next stop Broadway? Claire van Kampen’s new play Farinelli and the King, which is currently running at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, will transfer to the Duke of York’s Theatre. Directed by John Dove and designed by Jonathan Fensom, the production will open in September 2015 for a limited engagement.

Rylance won the Tony for Twelfth Night, Jerusalem and Boeing-Boeing and was nominated for Richard III (which played in rep with Twelfth Night). He has also appeared on the Great White Way in La Bete. Rylance will soon be seen on PBS in the screen adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall.

Set in eighteenth-century Spain, the show tells the true story of Farinelli, once the world’s most famous castrato and one of the greatest celebrities of his time, and his decision to trade fame and fortune in the opera-houses of Europe for a life of servitude at the court of King Philippe V. The new play explores the dynamics between Farinelli and the royal couple, featuring many of the exquisite arias first sung by Farinelli in the 1730’s.