Mike Nichols has two big Broadway projects in the works, according to The New York Post: a starry revival of Clifford Odets' The Country Girl and a production of Beau Willimon's political comedy Farragut North, originally announced as part of the 2007-08 season at Second Stage. The Country Girl is looking toward a spring 2008 opening presented by Nichols' Spamalot producer Bill Haber and starring Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand. A spokesperson for the long-running hit musical had no comment on the Post report. Farragut North is said to be aiming for a fall 2008 production, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. A spokesperson for Second Stage confirmed that the play has been scratched from the off-Broadway company's current season.
The Post reports that Freeman and McDormand are in talks to play Frank Elgin, a washed-up alcoholic actor seeking a Broadway comeback, and his wife, Georgie, in The Country Girl. The roles were originally played on Broadway in 1950 by Paul Kelly and Uta Hagen and in the 1954 film adaptation by Bing Crosby and Oscar winner Grace Kelly. Still to be cast is director Bernie Dodd, played on Broadway by Steven Hill and on film by William Holden.
Gyllenhaal starred in a recent reading of Farragut North directed by James Lapine. Second Stage press materials describe the play as a dark comedy about hot-shot press secretary Stephen Myers, whose candidate is poised to take the presidential nomination. As primaries commence in Iowa, Stephen's world unravels when colleagues become competition, lovers become liabilities and one election becomes his last hope of survival. Playwright Willimon has worked on the campaign staffs of Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton and on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential race.
Nichols has won Tony Awards for his direction of Spamalot, The Real Thing, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Plaza Suite, Luv, The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park and was nominated for Tonys for his direction of The Gin Game, Comedians, Uncle Vanya and The Apple Tree. Other Broadway directing credits include Death and the Maiden, Social Security, Hurlyburly and Streamers.
