It’s interesting to me that the characters of Brief Encounter are so unlike those in much of Coward’s canon. Laura and Alec are distinctly middle class, and that status contributes to the fate of their love affair. In 1940s England, the idea of carrying on an affair was simply unheard of. Divorce was extremely rare, and women, not having jobs outside the home, were quite dependent on their husbands. The well-known British stiff upper lip ruled the day, and life was a well-ordered routine.

So what attracted the colorful Coward to creating these seemingly ordinary characters? There’s something beautifully tragic in Laura and Alec’s forbidden love and how they are so constrained by societal rules that even they are caught off guard by the unfamiliar feeling of passion between them. One has to wonder if Coward was writing not only about society’s judgment of those who committed adultery but also about the public’s refusal to accept open homosexuality, which meant that Coward kept his own love affairs hidden for his entire life. Coward may have enjoyed a great many benefits thanks to his wealth and success, but in love, it seems that he related most to the middle class, whose strict moral code kept passion at bay in exchange for a façade of that most desirable quality of life – normalcy.

In this production of Brief Encounter, those inner passions that Coward and his characters kept to themselves are allowed to burst through the surface in stunningly theatrical ways. In many ways, the play is a celebration of the joys and dreams that we so often keep to ourselves. All may not end happily, but this production rejoices in the expression of those rich inner lives that so rarely get to shine through.

I’m thrilled to be sharing Brief Encounter with you – it’s a truly special production that will fit beautifully in Studio 54, making use of the wonderful character of that space. It’s a show unlike any other I’ve worked on, and I cannot wait to hear your thoughts on it. I hope that you will email me at artisticoffice@roundabouttheatre.org to share your reactions to this production and everything else that you see this season. Your feedback is something that I greatly value.

I look forward to seeing you at the theatre!

Todd Haimes

Artistic Director

Shaw himself certainly held strong views on the meaning of morality, and in his early career he wasn’t shy about writing essays or lecturing anyone who would listen about his views on the ills of society, of which there were many. The man himself was described by friends as practically being a Puritan (one claiming that he “missed the Mayflower by minutes”), and he loathed many of the excesses that he saw in his childhood in Dublin and adulthood in London. Shaw’s father, George, was a drunk, and Shaw resented his father’s behavior so greatly that he became a teetotaler himself and began going by his middle name, Bernard, to further distance himself from the man. He was also a vegetarian, refused tobacco, and is said to have even avoided other pleasures (there are claims that most of his relationships with women were more intellectual than emotional and that his forty-five year marriage was never consummated). So how did a man who eschewed so many of life’s pleasures become the writer of a play that became famous (or perhaps infamous) for a title character whose profession was, so to speak, The Oldest Profession?

In a way, we have Henrik Ibsen to thank for that turn of events. After reading translations of Ibsen’s work, Shaw realized that theatrical drama could be incredibly powerful as a way of expressing ideology. Through his characters, Shaw found that he was able to put on stage the issues that consumed him. One of these issues was the disdain with which society looked upon women who were forced by circumstance into the world of prostitution. For Shaw, the women were not the ones whose morality should be called into question. Instead, he wondered what was wrong with a society whose men demanded the existence of such a trade and then passed judgment on those who provided it, particularly when the alternative was starvation. He wanted the audience to ask themselves how different it really was for a woman to sell her body to a man as opposed to marrying him purely for his money.

Of course, putting such questions on stage in 1894 was easier said than done. Shaw knew there was a good chance that Mrs. Warren’s Profession would be banned, and he was quite right on that account. The Lord Chamberlain did indeed censor the play, in spite of the interesting fact that the word “prostitution” is never uttered onstage. It seemed that the objection was less to Mrs. Warren’s actual profession and more to the fact that it was presented as being “normalized.” A Kitty Warren who was punished for her behavior, or at least apologetic about it, may have led to a very different reaction from the censor. But Shaw had no interest in that kind of supposedly redemptive character. Instead, he contrasted Mrs. Warren with her daughter Vivie, an independent and educated young woman, and asked the audience to examine their own attitudes towards these very different women. His hope was that depicting what he saw as the realities of society’s problems would drive people to take action to fix the ills that he was displaying on stage.

The play was finally first performed publicly in New York in 1905 (although that production led to charges of indecency against everyone involved) and would not be seen publicly in London until 1925, by which time Shaw had won the Nobel Prize for his Saint Joan and was more widely accepted by the British public. From those times, through to Roundabout’s last production of this play in 1985, and now today, it is clear that the way we react to this play has a great deal to do with the context from which we view it. Shaw saw his title character as a product of the economics of her time; will we, digging out of our own economic crisis, view her choices differently than we may have even a few years ago?

I know that this endlessly provocative play will raise many questions, and I am excited for you to see how our extraordinary Resident Director Doug Hughes has shaped this production. Reuniting with leading lady Cherry Jones for the first time since their collaboration on Doubt (and with Cherry returning to Roundabout for the first time since taking on the title role in Shaw’s Major Barbara), it is sure to be a fantastic event.

And as you have for the past few years, I hope that you will continue to email me at artisticoffice@roundabouttheatre.org to share your reactions to this production and everything else that you see this season. Your feedback is incredibly important to me.

I look forward to seeing you at the theatre!

Todd Haimes

Artistic Director

“As a board member, I understand how important you are to Roundabout. Your involvement enables the theatre to produce outstanding plays, run groundbreaking programs like Roundabout Underground, and keep subscription prices affordable.

Right now, Roundabout very much needs our help to continue this important work. In light of this, I am offering a challenge: I will match any new gift made to Roundabout before August 31st, dollar for dollar, up to $250,000.

I have increased my giving this year and ask you to do the same. Make me contribute my money by contributing yours. Please give soon and you can double your impact on the programs here at Roundabout.

 I hope you’ll take a moment now to contribute online or call us at 212-719-9393 x324 to make your gift over the phone.

Thank you very much. Enjoy the summer!”

We hope you’ll join us by contributing to the Kaplen Challenge. For more information about membership in our Patron Programs, visit our website, or click here to make a donation today!

As most of you know, thanks to dedicated funding from the Leon Levy Foundation Roundabout was able to initiate a permanent archive in 2008. The purpose of the archive is to preserve and showcase Roundabout’s rich history by recovering and making accessible materials from previous productions as well as our extensive institutional records. 

The first batch of items received in the Roundabout Archives came from an actor by the name of Isaac Dostis. Mr. Dostis was part of the Roundabout Repertory Company (as the company was then known) and played the role of Sheriff in August Strindberg’s play, The Bond (which was staged in repertory with Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty) during the 1967-1968 season. He wanted to donate the few items still in his possession related to his work at Roundabout since he and his wife were moving to Ioannina Greece to start their own theatre company. 

What he donated are some of the earliest production materials in our collection: a photo of Mr. Dostis and Peter Ruffett on stage during The Bond; a season brochure from 1967-1968; and the original playbill from the two productions.  

Isaac Dostis and Peter Ruffett in The Bond, 1967. Photo credit: Ronald Berger.

On the surface this might not seem like an important acquisition but in fact it was. This donation was proof that materials from Roundabout’s past productions survived in the hands of numerous people, many of whom were willing to donate their personal mementos to help build the company’s archives. This gave us hope that additional materials would be recovered as more people learned of our efforts.   

If you are interested in learning more about the archives, or have materials to include in our permanent collection, please email me  at tiffanyn@roundabouttheatre.org. I look forward to hearing from you!

Directed & choreographed by Tony® Award winner Kathleen Marshall, Anything Goes will begin performances March 10th, 2011 and officially open on April 7th, 2011 on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (124 West 43rd Street).

Music & lyrics by Cole Porter; original book by P.G. Wodehouse & and Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse; New book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman.

The creative team includes Rob Fisher (Music Supervisor). The design team includes Derek McLan (Sets), Martin Pakledinaz (Costumes) and Peter Kaczorowski (Lights). Additional design team and cast members will be announced shortly.

Directed by Doug Hughes, previews begin Sept. 3 at the American Airlines Theatre with an official opening scheduled for Oct. 3.

Jones will be joined on stage by Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”), who will be making her Broadway debut as Vivie Warren, with Adam Driver (Little Doc at the Rattlestick) as Frank Gardner, Mark Harelik (The Light in the Piazza) as Sir George Crofts, Edward Hibbert (Curtains, The Drowsy Chaperone) as Mr. Praed and Michael Siberry (A Man for All Seasons, The Merchant of Venice) as Reverend Samuel Gardner. The limited engagement is currently scheduled to run through Nov. 21.
The design team includes Scott Pask (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes), Kenneth Posner (lights) and David Van Tieghem (sound).

George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, according to the Roundabout, “tells the story of Kitty Warren (Jones), a mother who makes a terrible sacrifice for her daughter Vivie’s (Hawkins) independence. The clash of these two strong-willed but culturally constrained women is the spark that ignites the ironic wit of one of Shaw’s greatest plays.”

Mrs. Warren’s Profession premiered on Broadway in 1905 at the Garrick Theatre and subsequently was revived on Broadway in 1907, 1918, 1922 and 1976.

Jones won Best Actress Tonys for her work in Doubt and The Heiress.

Performances will play Tuesday-Saturday at 8 PM with matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM.

Tickets are currently available exclusively to American Express® Cardmembers at www.roundabouttheatre.org, by phone at (212) 719-1300, or at the American Airlines Box Office (227 West 42nd Street).

Public on-sale begins July 30 by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the American Airlines Box Office (227 West 42nd Street).

Here is a conversation with Roundabout Artistic Director Todd Haimes about this production:

Q. Does a big Broadway musical like Anything Goes impact the way you program the rest of your season?

A. Programming a season is always a bit of a balancing act. The goal is to be true to Roundabout’s mission while providing our audience with an exciting range of work over the course of each year. I’d say that we generally do one big musical revival each year, and that always fits nicely in balance with the classic play revivals and new play work that we’re doing. To me, it’s exciting to be producing this great piece of musical theatre at the same time that we’ll be running plays by Oscar Wilde and Tennessee Williams. That’s exactly the kind of range that I think the audience is looking for. Anything Goes , with its great Cole Porter score, is a perfect representative of traditional musicals from the “Golden Age.” It really goes to the heart and soul of why we started producing musical revivals back in 1993. As a truly American art form, it’s so important that we bring these musicals back to the stage, and since Anything Goes hasn’t been seen on Broadway in more than two decades, it’s time to share this show with a new generation.

Q. Will this production of Anything Goes be downsized from what an audience would expect?

A. As we’ve shown with productions like Cabaret, Assassins, and Nine, Roundabout is committed to producing high quality musical revivals, and we will continue to do these shows on whatever scale is right for the particular production. Anything Goes , like many musicals of its period, is not exactly what you’d call a chamber musical. It’s a big ensemble piece, and that’s exactly what makes this show such a joy. I don’t think you can do Anything Goes properly without embracing its size.

Considering Roundabout’s relationship with Kathleen Marshall, what came first: the director or the musical? How does it usually work?

A. Obviously, Roundabout had a great experience with Kathleen Marshall on The Pajama Game, and she has since become one of our Associate Artists, so we’ve both been looking for the right opportunity to have her back at Roundabout again. In this particular case, Anything Goes was a show that I’ve always wanted to do, and when I brought the idea to Kathleen, it was immediately clear that we had a great match here. It’s not always the case that I can so confidently bring a project like this to a director, and in fact I often find that we get great work from directors coming to me with their passion projects. But this was a situation where we have such history with the artist, going all the way back to when Kathleen was the Assistant Choreographer on Roundabout’s first musical, She Loves Me, back in 1993, that I just knew her work so well and truly had no doubt that this would be a perfect fit. Kathleen is pretty singular as both a director and choreographer in her ability to revitalize classic American musicals. She loves and appreciates the form, but she also has the ability to make it her own and give it a fresh perspective for today’s audiences. I think Anything Goes will be a wonderful showcase for Kathleen’s amazing talent and a true treat for our audience.

Q.Sutton Foster is well known as one of Broadway’s leading ladies. Why is she right to play “Reno Sweeney”?

A.You simply don’t do Anything Goes without knowing that you have a fantastic Reno Sweeney, and I have no hesitation in saying we have one with Sutton Foster. Sutton is an amazing talent, and I’m thrilled to have her joining the Roundabout family. She’s one of Broadway’s most versatile and funny women — a true triple-threat who will be able to act, sing, and dance this role as no one else could. Sutton has originated so many Broadway roles already in her career, from Millie Dillmount to Princess Fiona, but to me there’s something particularly exciting about seeing a true Broadway baby like Sutton take on a role like Reno Sweeney that comes with such an amazing history. I can’t wait to see Sutton put her own unique mark on the role.

How does Anything Goes fit into Roundabout’s history of presenting classic musicals?

Whether it’s 1776, 110 in the Shade, or Assassins, our goal in musical revivals is to give the great artists of today the chance to put a new perspective on the great work of years past. It may be something more traditional like She Loves Me or an essential Sondheim like Sunday in the Park with George, but no matter what, we want our audience to experience the best of the musical theatre canon. The original production of Anything Goes opened in 1934 and has continued to be a favorite over so many decades because it has something that no classic musical can do without: a great score. Musicals have certainly changed over the years, and they can now take many different forms, but what keeps audiences coming back to Anything Goes is that wonderful music, a great cast of characters, and a big beating heart. These are the elements that make it so timeless, and having been away from Broadway since 1989, it is very much ready to be revived by the best artists working in musical theatre today. Knowing what brilliant work Kathleen Marshall accomplished on The Pajama Game, I can’t wait to see her vision for Anything Goes on stage.

Here is a conversation with Roundabout Artistic Director Todd Haimes about this production:

Q. Why did you select Brief Encounter for the Roundabout Season?

A. After seeing the production in London, I thought that Brief Encounter would be a wonderful fit for the 2010-2011 season at Roundabout, and for Studio 54 in particular. It’s innovative, exciting, and so in tune with its theatrical environment. I just felt that Emma Rice and Kneehigh Theatre have found a truly exhilarating way to tell this beloved story, and it seemed especially exciting to be able to bring our audience this completely new look at a piece that originated as a Noel Coward play so closely following our production of his Present Laughter last season. Whether the audience is familiar with the play, Coward’s original screenplay, or neither, I think they’re going to be absolutely wowed by the originality of this production.

Q. How does the production fulfill the mission statement?

A. A large part of Roundabout’s mission is to give today’s artists the opportunity to bring new life to the great plays and playwrights of the past. I think Brief Encounter is a perfect example of that, having originated as Noel Coward’s Still Life, which he then adapted for the screen, and now returning to the stage. While the visual world of the cinema plays a major role in this production, the text is very much Coward’s and in fact includes songs and poems that he wrote as well. I love that this production is so grounded in the spirit of Coward and is able to move that sensibility into such a highly theatrical world where music, media, movement, and more become part of the production’s vocabulary. It’s a great blend of the classic and modern.

Is there a reason or advantage to Roundabout presenting work that has been previously produced?

A. The goal is always to present our audience with the best possible work, and when you see something as unique as Brief Encounter, it’s obviously great to know with such certainty that you have a production of this high quality. It’s also important as an institutional theater to help great work get seen by a wider audience. Brief Encounter had a very successful run at St. Ann’s Warehouse, and I think there are many more people who will want to see or perhaps revisit it. Emma Rice is doing thrilling work with Kneehigh Theatre, and it quite simply deserves to be seen. I don’t think Roundabout is alone in believing that it’s important to produce this kind of work, regardless of how it originates. Programming a season is always a balance, and I think Brief Encounter will fit in beautifully with the other productions we have planned for the year ahead.

Q.How did you decide Brief Encounter should go into Studio 54?

A. Studio 54 has the most distinct personality of any Broadway theatre, and Brief Encounter, like Cabaret before it, is exactly the kind of show that can take advantage of the character of the space. The world of Brief Encounter extends both physically and emotionally beyond the stage, and it has benefited in its previous incarnations from being presented in unique environments. So everything that comes to mind when you think of Studio 54, all the history, infamy, and associations that are part of just being in that place, will enhance a production like this one naturally and will give it a bit of a different feel from its past lives. And, I think, it will make for a really wonderful experience for the audience.