Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher to Star in The Country Girl

Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher are set to star in Mike Nichols' Broadway revival of Clifford Odets' The Country Girl. The production is planned to open at a Shubert theater in April 2008.

This classic backstage story features the title character, Georgie McDormand, who is married to actor Frank Elgin Freeman, once a great theater star and now down on his luck. When Frank is offered a major role by hotshot director Bernie Dodd Gallagher, he has the chance to make a major comeback. The roles were originally played on Broadway in 1950 by Uta Hagen, Paul Kelly and Steven Hill and in the 1954 film adaptation by Oscar winner Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and William Holden.

Freeman last appeared on Broadway in 1988 in The Gospel at Colonus. He received a Tony nomination for The Mighty Gents and appeared on Broadway in Purlie, The Dozens and Hello, Dolly!. Freeman is the recipient of three Obie Awards for his work in Coriolanus, Gospel at Colonus and Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Driving Miss Daisy. His most recent New York stage appearance was as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew with Tracey Ullman. Freeman received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for Million Dollar Baby and was nominated for Oscars for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption.

McDormand was nominated for a Tony for playing Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire and appeared on New York stages in Far Away, The Sisters Rosenzweig and The Swan. She played Blanche in Streetcar at the Gate Theater in Dublin, and starred opposite Billy Crudup in Oedipus at the Blue Light Theater Company. Recently, she spent two years with The Wooster Group workshopping and then performing To You, The Birdie!. She received an Academy Award for Fargo and was nominated for Mississippi Burning, Almost Famous and North Country.

Gallagher made his Broadway debut in the 1977 revival of Hair and has, over a 30-year career, gone on to appear in Grease as Danny Zuko, A Doll's Life Theatre World Award, The Corn is Green, The Real Thing, Long Day's Journey Into Night Tony Award nomination, Guys and Dolls and Noises Off. Film credits include The Idolmaker, sex, lies and videotape, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, The Player, Short Cuts, American Beauty and The Underneath. Most recently, he appeared on the hit Fox-TV show The O.C.

Nichols, an eight-time Tony Award winner most recently for Spamalot directed the forthcoming feature film Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts.

Tony and Olivier Award winner Tim Hatley Spamalot, Private Lives, Vincent in Brixton, The Crucible, Stanley will design the sets and costumes. Hatley's film work includes Stage Beauty and Closer.

The Country Girl will be produced on Broadway by Ostar Productions and Bob Boyett.