Roundabout Offers The Constant Wife Instead of Passion Play

The Roundabout Theatre Company production of Passion Play, which had been delayed until May because of the extension of Twelve Angry Men, is not happening then after all. Instead of the Peter Nichols piece, the summer offering at the American Airlines Theatre will be W. Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife, according to a production spokesperson. No reason was given for the change in plans.

Set in a London drawing room in the 1920s, The Constant Wife follows the blossoming of Constance, a faithful wife who discovers that her husband is having an affair with her best friend. Rather than humiliating herself and others, she denies the affair, defends the two, and sets about turning bad luck, unfaithful friends, local gossip and a broken heart to her own advantage.

The Constant Wife first opened on Broadway in 1926. It has been revived three times. The last revival, a short-lived 1975 staging at the Shubert Theatre, starred Ingrid Bergman as Constance.

The Roundabout revival will be directed by Mark Brokaw, who was the director attached to Passion Play. Performances of The Constant Wife are expected to begin in late May.