Lonergan's Starry Messenger, Starring Matthew Broderick, Pulled from Old Globe Season

Kenneth Lonergan's Broadway-bound The Starry Messenger has been pulled from the season at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, according to Variety. Matthew Broderick had been announced as the star in the new play, which had been scheduled to run at the Old Globe from January 13 to February 18, 2007, transferring to Broadway in April 2007. Lonergan's continuing work on his latest film, Margaret, is the cause of the delay, according to the Old Globe.

No announcement was made about the possibility of rescheduling The Starry Messenger for the Old Globe's 2007-08 season, or of taking a different route to a New York production.

After achieving stage success with This Is Our Youth and Lobby Hero, Lonergan wrote and directed the 2000 movie hit You Can Count on Me. Broderick, a childhood friend of Lonergan's in New York City, appeared in You Can Count on Me and also has a role in Margaret.

In The Starry Messenger, Broderick is cast as Mark Williams, who teaches astronomy at a non-research university in New York by day and adult classes at the Hayden Planetarium by night. He has a perfectly nice life with his wife and son, but he wants more. There's just one problem—his efforts to achieve his goals are at war with the compromises and financial considerations of daily life.

Replacing The Starry Messenger in the Old Globe's season is the musical Ace, which follows three generations through two world wars. Stafford Arima will direct the show, which has a book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker and music by Oberacker.