Indie Filmmaker Abel Ferrara Will Bring Short Eyes Back to Broadway

Indie filmmaker Abel Ferrara will make his Broadway directorial debut next season, helming a revival of Miguel Pinero’s Short Eyes, Variety reports. No theater or casting has been set.

Short Eyes follows the lives of a tense, diverse group of inmates at a New York prison after they’re joined by a white man accused of pedophilia. The show, written by Pinero while serving time at Sing Sing prison for armed robbery, was first produced at the Public Theater and transferred to Broadway's Vivian Beaumont Theatre on May 23, 1974, where it played 80 performances and scored a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. It was later adapted into a film in 1977, starring Bruce Davison and Pinero.

Ferrara’s numerous directorial credits include Could This Be Love, Fear City, The Gladiator, China Girl, King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, Body Snatchers, Dangerous Game, The Blackout, New Rose Hotel, Go Go Tales, The Addiction, Chelsea on the Rocks and Napoli, Napoli, Napoli.

Producers for the project include Carl Rumbaugh, Antone Pagan, Charles Rosen and Susan Batson. Batson and Rumbaugh previously paired together to help produce Broadway’s 2004 revival of A Raisin in the Sun.

Rumbaugh commented to Variety producers will be looking to cast the play’s numerous roles with performers who have worked with the director previously, which could get interesting. Ferrara’s frequent film collaborators include current The Miracle Worker star Matthew Modine, A Behanding in Spokane star Christopher Walken, Paul Calderon, David Caruso and Willem Dafoe, among many others.