Spike Lee to Direct Stalag 17 Revival on Broadway

Film director Spike Lee will make his Broadway debut with the first-ever revival of Stalag 17, according to an interview in The New York Times. Lee had scheduled a press conference at the Palace Theater on June 28 to announce his plans, but the Times and Variety revealed the name of the play on June 27. A spring 2008 production is planned; no theater or stars have been revealed.

"I'm very happy to get the opportunity to make my first foray into the theater and Broadway," Lee said in a statement released to the press on June 27. "I've never been one to put limits on my art. I was too young to see the play, but I've seen the movie numerous times and Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors. This production will have a contemporary look, yet still stay true to the period and the original play."

Stalag 17 is a comedy-drama about American airmen in a German prisoner of war camp in World War II, written by former P.O.W.s Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski. The play opened on Broadway on May 8, 1951, and played 472 performances, earning a Tony nomination for director Jose Ferrer. Billy Wilder directed the 1953 film version starring William Holden as a wheeler-dealer and suspected spy within the prison camp. Lee told the Times that he plans to cast a big name in the role, and a production source speculated that Clive Owens might be in the running.

Lee was tapped for the project by producer Michael Abbott, who was the original producer of Stalag 17 when it played off-Broadway before Ferrer came on board. Variety noted that Abbott's last Broadway credit was the Jerome Lawrence-Robert E. Lee play The Incomparable Max, which ran for less than three weeks in 1971.

"Producing Stalag 17 once again on stage, after so many years, is a labor of love for me," Abbott said in a statement. "I feel audiences of all generations will react strongly to the humor, the mystery and the suspense of the show. Its themes of laughter through adversity and the quest for freedom are timeless. And Spike will add an extraordinary new dimension to this relevant new production. The script essentially remains the same, but Spike's magic will bring Stalag 17 into the present."

Co-author Trzcinski has passed away, but Bevan said in a statement, "I am thrilled that you signed Spike Lee as director—a perfect fit for our Stalag 17 property. The unspoken theme of Stalag 17 is that these POWs, the first of many, served at the forefront of saving Western civilization. Bravo, Bravo Spike!"