Olivia Wilde, Tom Sturridge, Reed Birney to Lead ‘1984’ on Broadway

Tom Sturridge, Olivia Wilde and Reed Birney are set to star in 1984 on Broadway.

Producers Sonia Friedman and Scott Rudin announced Monday that the trio will lead the new stage adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian novel.

The limited engagement — which marks Wilde’s Broadway debut — begins performances May 18 and will open June 22 at the Hudson Theatre. Adapted and directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, 1984 transfers to Broadway after four successful U.K. runs and international tour dates including Los Angeles early last year.

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Sturridge, Wilde and Birney will play the novel’s classic characters Winston Smith, Julia and O’Brien, respectively. They will be joined by Wayne Duvall (Parsons), Carl Hendrick Louis (Martin), Nick Mills (Syme), Michael Potts (Charrington), and Cara Seymour (Mrs. Parsons).

Orwell’s novel has seen a recent surge in sales as political pundits and editorialists draw parallels between the contemporary rise of far-right political movements and the author’s bleak vision of a future in which critical thought is suppressed by a totalitarian regime, ostensibly overseen by a party leader known as Big Brother.

First published in 1949, the book recently made its way back to the top of the Amazon best-seller list and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide since publication.

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