Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham is headed off-Broadway to play Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Barabas in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. The two plays will be presented in repertory at The Duke Theatre by Theatre for a New Audience. The Merchant of Venice, directed by Darko Tresnjak, begins previews on January 6, 2007, opens February 4 and is scheduled to run through March 11. The Jew of Malta, directed by David Herskovits, begins previews on January 17, opens February 4 and is scheduled to run off-Broadway through March 10.
The 14-member company of actors for both plays includes Kate Forbes acclaimed for her performance last season in All's Well That Ends Well as Portia in the Shakespeare and Bellamira, the courtesan, in the Marlowe. Also cast are Kenajuan Bentley, Arnie Burton, Cameron Folmar, Ezra Knight, John Lavelle, Nicole Lowrance, Vince Nappo, Tom Nelis, Saxon Palmer, Matthew Schneck, Christen Simon and Marc Vietor.
Abraham won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1984 film Amadeus. His other film credits include Star Trek: Insurrection, Children of the Revolution, Mighty Aphrodite, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Scarface and The Name of the Rose. He made his stage debut in a 1966 Los Angeles production of Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and his off-Broadway debut a year later in The Fantasticks with Jerry Orbach and Nancy Allen. He made his Broadway debut in 1968 in The Man in the Glass Booth. Other Broadway credits include The Ritz, Triumph of Love, Angels in America and A Christmas Carol.
After its New York engagement, this production of The Merchant of Venice Theatre will tour to the Royal Shakespeare Company, to be presented in its Complete Works Festival.
