The Shawshank Redemption Ends West End Run 10 Weeks Early

The London stage version of The Shawshank Redemption will shutter early, closing at Wyndham's Theatre on November 29. The play, starring Broadway's Kevin Anderson and Reg E. Cathey and directed by Peter Sheridan, was originally slated to run through February 14, 2010.

Based on Stephen King's 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Owen O'Neill and Dave Johns' play follows Andy Dufresne after he is wrongfully incarcerated at the notorious Shawshank Prison for murdering his wife and her lover. Stripped of his family and freedom, Andy is forced to endure a spirit-crushing prison routine. A film adaptation of the original story was released in 1994 starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman; it garnered seven Academy Award nominations.

Anderson (Come Back, Little Sheba, Brooklyn, Death of a Salesman) stars as Dufresne alongside Cathey (The Green Bird; HBO's Oz) as Red, his best friend and confidante in the prison. The play originally played a sell-out run at the Gaiety Dublin before transferring to Wyndham's on September 4 and opening on September 13. A U.K. tour is planned for 2010 before the production returns to Dublin.