DANIEL CRAIG RACHEL WEISZ RAFE SPALL Split - H 2013
Getty ImagesNEW YORK — Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Rafe Spall will star on Broadway in Harold Pinter’s searing, semi-autobiographical dissection of a complex romantic triangle, Betrayal.
The revival of the 1978 play reunites producer Scott Rudin with director Mike Nichols, who had one of the major hits of last season on Broadway with their superlative revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield. That production won Tony Awards for best revival of a play and best direction.
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Betrayal will play a limited 14-week engagement at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. It begins performances on Oct. 1, with opening night set for Nov. 3. Closing date is Jan. 5.
The play is regarded among Pinter’s masterworks. Inspired by his own extramarital affair, it uses reverse chronology to examine the dynamics of a seven-year clandestine relationship of the wife of a London publisher with his best friend and literary agent, who is also married. Real-life couple Craig and Weisz will play the husband and wife, with Spall as the interloper.
Craig was last seen on Broadway opposite Hugh Jackman in the sellout run of A Steady Rain in 2009. Weisz has worked extensively on the London stage, notably winning a 2010 Olivier Award for best actress as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Betrayal will mark her Broadway debut.
Also making his first appearance on Broadway in the production, Spall (Life of Pi, Prometheus) is nominated for an Olivier this year for his role in the Royal Court and West End transfer production of Nick Payne’s Constellations.
Nichols is among the most honored directors in New York theater history. He has won eight Tonys for direction, starting in 1964 with Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, in addition to two as producer, for Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and the musical Annie.
Betrayal was first seen on Broadway in a production that opened in 1980 starring Blythe Danner, Raul Julia and Roy Scheider. It was last revived in 2000, with Juliette Binoche, Liev Schreiber and John Slattery. A film adaptation was released in 1983 that starred Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Hodge.
