Rosemary Harris, Carla Gugino & Jim Dale to Star in The Road to Mecca on Broadway

Tony winners Rosemary Harris and Jim Dale will star in the Broadway premiere of Athol Fugard’s The Road To Mecca, along with Broadway vet Carla Gugino. The Roundabout Theatre production, directed by Gordon Edelstein, will begin previews on December 16 and open officially on January 17, 2012 at the American Airlines Theatre.

Set in the region of South Africa known as the Karoo, The Road to Mecca tells the story of an elderly woman who has spent the years since her husband’s death transforming her home into an intricate and dazzling work of art. The reclusive Miss Helen (Harris) has become depressed and appears increasingly unable to care for herself. Pastor Marius Byleveld (Dale), who embodies the village’s conservative values, is determined to get Miss Helen into an old-age home. Her friend Elsa (Gugino), a young teacher from Cape Town who is deeply suspicious of the patriarchal traditions Byleveld represents, is just as determined that Miss Helen remain free.

Harris was last seen on Broadway in The Royal Family. Her other Broadway credits include A Delicate Balance, Waiting in the Wings, Lost in Yonkers, Hay Fever, The Merchant of Venice, The Wild Duck and The Lion in Winter, for which she won a Tony Award. Gugino has appeared on Broadway in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall and Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms. Dale won a Tony Award for his role in Barnum and has also been seen on Broadway in Scapino, Joe Egg, Me and My Girl, Candide and The Threepenny Opera.

A South African playwright, director and actor, Fugard received a 2011 special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2012 he will be Signature Theatre Company’s inaugural Residency One playwright and first international Playwright-in-Residence. The Road to Mecca had its world premiere in 1987 at the National Theatre in London and its New York premiere at the Promenade Theatre off-Broadway in 1988. Both productions were directed by Fugard, who also starred as Marius Blyeveld. A 1992 film adaptation, co-directed by Fugard and Peter Goldsmid, starred Fugard as the Rev. Marius Byleveld, with Kathy Bates as Elsa Barlow and Yvonne Bryceland as Miss Helen.