Patrick Stewart's Macbeth Firms Up Broadway Dates

Dates have been finalized for the start of previews and opening night for the forthcoming Broadway presentation of Macbeth, starring Patrick Stewart. Directed by Rupert Goold, the production will begin previews on March 28 rather then the previously reported March 29 and open on April 8 at the Lyceum Theatre. Stewart and company will play 64 performances, through May 24. Macbeth, which began at the Chichester Festival Theatre, is playing a sold-out engagement at BAM through March 22.

In one of Shakespeare's greatest dramas, Stewart plays a man utterly determined to obtain the royal crown. Aided by his even more ambitious and ruthless wife, Macbeth murders the king and a comrade only to lose everything by the play's end. In his New York debut, Goold takes inspiration from Stalin's Great Terror and directs this psychological tragedy in a stark, austere production that places Macbeth in a timeless, nameless and lawless country.

After its premiere at the Chichester Festival, Macbeth transferred to London's West End for a 10-week sold-out run, then moved to BAM. Stewart received the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor and the Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Shakespearean Performance; Goold received the Evening Standard and Critics Circle Theatre awards for Best Director. Macbeth has also been nominated for five Olivier Awards: Best Actor for Stewart, Best Director for Goold, Best Revival, Best Lighting Design for Howard Harrison, and Best Set Design for Anthony Ward and Lorna Heavey.

In addition to Stewart, the cast features Michael Feast as Macduff, Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth, and Martin Turner as Banquo, as well as Oliver Birch, Ben Carpenter, Polly Frame, Scott Handy, Sophie Hunter, Hywel John, Christopher Knott, Niamh McGrady, Bill Nash, Christopher Patrick Nolan, Mark Rawlings, and Tim Treloar.

The Broadway production of Macbeth is being produced by Duncan C. Weldon & Paul Elliott, Jeffrey Archer, Bill Ballard, Terri & Timothy Childs, Rodger Hess, David Mirvish, Adriana Mnuchin and Emanuel Azenberg with BAM.