Al Pacino to Bring Venice to Broadway

Broadway.com has announced that the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park staging of The Merchant of Venice will transfer to Broadway.  Al Pacino, star of the Park production, will move with the production for 78 performances from mid October through early January at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway in a production directed by Daniel Sullivan.  The current production will close August 1st.  Al Pacino previously portrayed Shylock in the 2004 movie adaptation of the play and won Tony Awards for his performances in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, as well as appearing in Broadway productions of American Buffalo, Camino Real, and Salome.

Broadway Premier for David Lindsay-Abaire

The Manhattan Theatre Club will premier a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony nominee David Lindsay-Abaire.  This premier follows in the tradition of Rabbit Hole, a play by Lindsay-Abaire that the Manhattan Theatre Club premiered on Broadway in 2006.  The new play, Good People, will have its Broadway (and world) premier at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in a production to be directed by Daniel Sullivan.  According to Variety Magazine, the "plot follows a South Boston woman who hopes an old flame will help her out of a dead-end situation."