John Malkovich Eyes Return to Broadway with The Good Canary

Academy Award nominee John Malkovich may be heading to Broadway—though the acclaimed actor won’t be taking center stage. According to syndicated columnist Cindy Adams, the star is in talks to direct Zach Helm’s The Good Canary on the Great White Way.

“I just turned down a Broadway play,” Malkovich told Adams. “I haven’t lived in New York in over 20 years. I live in Massachusetts. I have kids at home who don’t want to leave their friends and move, except they will when I’m in Vienna this summer doing The Infernal Comedy. They’ll come because they love the sausage.” The actor went on to explain being involved with his two sons’ schooling and spending time with the family is top priority right now.

Directing, however, is a distinct possibility for the performer. He has directed The Good Canary twice, including a Paris production in 2007. A Malkovich-helmed Spanish language production of the play, which is about a novelist whose wife is struggling with addiction and mental illness, last played a limited engagement in November 2008, featuring indie-film star Diego Luna, Daniel Gimenex Cancho, Bruno Bichir, Irene Azuela and Yuriria del Valle, at Mexico City’s Teatro de Los Insurgentes.

Malkovich, a charter member of Choicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, last appeared on Broadway in Burn This in 1987, three years after his debut in Death of a Salesman. His Broadway directing credits include Arms and the Man in which he also performed and The Caretaker. He is best known for his extensive film resume, including Places in the Heart Oscar nomination, The Glass Menagerie, Dangerous Liaisons, In the Line of Fire Oscar nomination, Being John Malkovich and Burn After Reading.