Broadway Revival of The Miracle Worker in the Works

Producer David Richenthal, currently behind Broadway's revival of Finian's Rainbow, is eyeing another revival, that of William Gibson's The Miracle Worker. Casting notices for the as-yet unannounced production were released last week, and the producer is considering the drama, press representatives confirmed. No details about theater, dates or casting have been made at this time, though director Kate Whoriskey is rumored to be in talks to direct.

Set in the South in the 1880s, The Miracle Worker tells the story of real-life Medal of Freedom winner Helen Keller, born blind and deaf, and the extraordinary teacher who taught her to communicate with the world, Annie Sullivan.

A previous revival, starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank as teacher Annie Sullivan and Skye McCole Bartusiak as Helen Keller, had been prepped for the Rialto in April 2003. Directed by Marianne Elliott, the show tried out during a sold-out engagement at the Charlotte Repertory Theatre before its scheduled move to the Music Box Theatre, but producers cancelled the Broadway jump shortly before it finished its try-out.

Whoriskey most recently directed the acclaimed and much-extended world premiere of Lynn Nottage's Ruined at the Goodman Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club and Inked Baby at Playwrights Horizons. Additional credits include regional productions of Heartbreak House, The Rose Tattoo, Drowning Crow, Antigone and Intimate Apparel, as well as off-Broadway's Fabulation. Whoriskey has just been named artistic director of Seattle's Intiman Theatre.

Gibson first adapted the story of Keller and her teacher into a TV teleplay called The Miracle Worker in 1957. He made his Broadway debut as a playwright with the love story Two for the Seesaw, starring Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft, receiving his first Tony nomination for the show, which played 750 performances at the Booth Theatre. The Miracle Worker followed in 1959, with Bancroft as Sullivan and Patty Duke as Keller. The piece won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1960. Gibson's other works include Golden Boy, Raggedy Ann, A Cry of Players and Golda. The scribe passed away in November 2008 at the age of 95.