Kristin Scott Thomas plans to reprise her critically acclaimed performance as Arkadina in a Broadway transfer of the Royal Court Theater's production of The Seagull in the spring of 2008, according to Variety. Director Ian Rickson's staging of the Chekhov classic is looking to open in late April at a Shubert theater, possibly the Cort after the limited run of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming.
Scott Thomas, an Oscar nominee for The English Patient, starred in Christopher Hampton's new translation of the play last winter opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor as Trigorin. No further casting has been set for the Broadway production, although Variety speculates that American actors will be tapped for most of the roles.
Chekhov's play is a hot commodity in New York this season: Ian McKellen is currently appearing in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of the play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in repertory with King Lear for three weeks, and an off-Broadway production starring Dianne Wiest is on the spring schedule at Classic Stage Company, translated by Paul Schmidt. Meryl Streep starred in Tom Stoppard's translation of the play in 2001 in a Central Park production directed by Mike Nichols and co-starring Kevin Kline, Christopher Walken, Natalie Portman, Marcia Gay Harden and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
