Full casting has been announced to join Hollywood star and multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway legend Matthew Broderick in The Starry Messenger by Kenneth Lonergan, the Academy Award-winning writer of Manchester-By-The-Sea. The Starry Messenger will begin performances at the Wyndham’s Theatre on Thursday 16 May (Press Night: Wednesday 29 May at 7:00pm) and play a strictly limited 13-week season.
Alongside Broderick - renowned for roles including Ferris Bueller in the iconic movie and Leo Bloom in The Producers - and the also previously-announced Elizabeth McGovern - known to millions for her portrayal of Lady Cora in the multi award-winning drama series Downton Abbey – will be Tony and Olivier Award-winner Jim Norton (Father Ted), Olivier Award-winner Jenny Galloway and Rosalind Eleazar (Howard’s End).
Completing the cast will be Joplin Sibtain, Sinead Matthews and Sid Sagar, in a production to be directed by Sam Yates (Glengarry Glen Ross).
In the vastness of the universe are we all just lonely souls under the same night sky?
Mark Williams is lost. An astronomer at New York City’s Planetarium, he feels a closer connection to the infinite, starry sky than to his job or even to his wife, Anne. Mark doesn’t believe in fate or divine intervention, but the universe has other ideas.
After a chance meeting with Angela, a young single mother, the stars appear to have aligned. But when a catastrophic event rips through their lives, Mark is forced to re-evaluate his life, his faith and his place in the universe itself.
This bittersweet, comic drama is an unblinking exploration of love, hope and understanding our place in the universe, by one of the most celebrated writers working today.
The Starry Messenger is produced by Simon Friend Entertainment, Act Productions, Gavin Kalin, Howard Panter/Eilene Davidson and Rupert Gavin.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
THE STARRY MESSENGER
Written by Kenneth Lonergan
Directed by Sam Yates
Set & Costume Design by Chiara Stephenson
Sound and Music by Alex Baranowski
CAST
Matthew Broderick Mark
Elizabeth McGovern Anne
Jim Norton Norman
Rosalind Eleazar Angela
Sinead Matthews Doris
Joplin Sibtain Arnold
Jenny Galloway Mrs Pysner
Sid Sagar Ian
Understudies:
Greg Baxter
Helen Barford
Kerry Bennett
Edward Wolstenholme
WYNDHAM’S THEATRE
Charing Cross Road
London
WC2H 0DA
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SEASON DATES
Thursday 16 May – Saturday 10 August 2019
PRESS NIGHT
Wednesday 29 May at 7:00pm
PERFORMANCE TIMES
Mondays - Saturdays: 7:30pm
Wednesday & Saturday matinees: 2:30pm
N.B. First Saturday matinee – Saturday 18th May 2.30pm; First Midweek matinee – Wednesday 22nd May; No Matinee Wednesday 29 May, Thursday 30 May instead
Matthew Broderick
Two-time Tony award-winning stage actor and instantly recognizable film presence, Matthew Broderick was last seen on screen in Rules Don’t Apply, directed by and starring Warren Beatty; as well as Manchester By The Sea, directed by Kenneth Lonergan. He will next star in Shawn Snyder’s To Dust, which won the Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award for Narrative feature and will be released in February 2019; the animated comedy Wonder Park, starring Jennifer Garner and Mila Kunis, to debut in March 2019; and the upcoming Netflix series Daybreak, created by Aron Eli Coleite and Brad Peyton.
On stage, Broderick was last seen in The Seafarer at the Irish Repertory Theatre and The Closet at the 2018 Williamstown Theater Festival. He previously starred in The New Group’s US premiere of Wallace Shawn’s Evening at the Talk House at the Pershing Square Signature Center and in the off-Broadway production of Shining City at the Irish Repertory Theatre, for which he earned an Obie Award for both performances. Other theater credits include A. R. Gurney’s comedy Sylvia alongside Annaleigh Ashford; the smash Broadway hit It’s Only a Play opposite his frequent co-star Nathan Lane; the award-winning Broadway run of Nice Work If You Can Get It; the Broadway production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple; and The Foreigner at the Roundabout Theatre. In 2005, he starred in the feature film version of The Producers, reprising his Tony-nominated performance he gave during the record-breaking production on Broadway.
A New York native, he made his professional stage debut opposite his father, James Broderick, at age 17 in the production of On Valentine’s Day. His performance in Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy, won him the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. Broderick won his first Tony Award for Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, and starred in the play’s sequel, Biloxi Blues. He won his second Tony for his role as J. Pierrepont Finch, in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Additional theater credits include Night Must Fall and Taller Than a Dwarf.
On screen, Broderick starred in the critically acclaimed film You Can Count on Me opposite Laura Linney. He also earned considerable acclaim starring opposite Reese Witherspoon in the Independent Spirit Award winning political satire Election, directed by Alexander Payne.
Broderick has also starred in such blockbuster movies as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Glory, War Games, and Disney’s The Lion King, as the adult voice of Simba. Additional credits include The American Side, Dirty Weekend, Tower Heist, Margaret, Bee Movie, Then She Found Me, Deck the Halls, The Last Shot, The Stepford Wives, Inspector Gadget, Godzilla, Addicted to Love, The Cable Guy, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, The Night We Never Met, The Freshman, Family Business and Max Dugan Returns.
On television, Broderick was last seen in Fox’s live musical event A Christmas Story Live! He has
also appeared on Modern Family, 30 Rock, the Showtime film Master Harold…and the Boys and received an Emmy nomination for the TNT production of David Mamet’s A Life in the Theater in which he starred opposite Jack Lemmon.
Broderick resides in New York with his wife Sarah Jessica Parker and their three children.
Elizabeth McGovern
Elizabeth McGovern’s career spans theatre, film and television. Elizabeth is most well known for her role as Lady Cora in multiple award winning television show DOWNTON ABBEY, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy and won a SAG.
Elizabeth can currently be seen in Bjorn Runge’s THE WIFE, in which she stars opposite Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce.
2017 saw Elizabeth produce her first feature, in which she also stars, THE CHAPERONE, written by Julian Fellowes.
In 2016 Elizabeth starred at The National Theatre in the new Alexi Kaye Campbell play SUNSET AT THE VILLA THALIA. 2016 also saw Elizabeth shoot THE COMMUTER opposite Liam Neeson.
Elizabeth has appeared in films such as Matthew Vaughn’s KICK ASS and Warner Brothers’ CLASH OF THE TITANS alongside Ralph Fiennes. She received an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for her role in RAGTIME, her second feature film, following her debut in Robert Redford’s ORDINARY PEOPLE whilst she was still a student at Julliard. Other major film roles have included starring opposite Robert De Niro in ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA and Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage in RACING WITH THE MOON.
Elizabeth has had a great presence on the West End Stage, winning the 2013 Will Award from the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Other notable productions include THE MISANTHROPE at the Young Vic, THREE DAYS OF RAIN at the Donmar and David Mamet’s THE SHAWL at the Arcola Theatre. 2017 will see her return to Broadway in J.B Priestley’s TIME AND THE CONWAYS.
McGovern also fronts and writes the songs for the band ‘Sadie and the Hotheads’ and has performed globally with them.
Kenneth Lonergan
Plays: This is Our Youth (The New Group, 1997 Drama Desk Award Best Play nominee; 2015 Tony Award Best Revival of a Play nominee); The Waverly Gallery (2001 Pulitzer Prize finalist); Lobby Hero (Playwrights Horizons, 2001 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award Best Play nominee; 2003 Olivier Award Best New Comedy nominee, 2018 Tony Award Best Revival of a Play nominee); The Starry Messenger (The New Group; 2009); Medieval Play (Signature Theatre, 2012); and Hold on to Me Darling (Atlantic Theater Company, 2016).
Film: You Can Count on Me, 2001 Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee for Best Original Screenplay; Margaret – Extended Edition, 2012 European Film Critics’ FIPRESCI Award; and Manchester by the Sea; 2016 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, 2016 BAFTA Film Award for Best Original Screenplay, among numerous other international awards and nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Director. Screenplays include Analyze This (co-writers Harold Ramis and Peter Tolan) and Gangs of New York (co-writers Jay Cocks and Steve Zaillian; 2003 Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay).
Teleplays: “Howards End” (BBC and Starz Network 2017-2018, 2018 BAFTA TV Award for Best Mini Series nominee). Mr. Lonergan lives in New York City with his wife, J. Smith-Cameron, and their daughter, Nellie.
Sam Yates
Theatre work includes: The Phlebotomist (Hampstead Theatre Downstairs and Main Stage) Incantata (Galway International Arts Festival); Glengarry Glen Ross (Playhouse, West End and UK No 1 Tour); Desire Under the Elms (Sheffield Crucible); Murder Ballad (Arts Theatre); Cymbeline (Ian Charleson commendation); East Is East (West End and UK tours); The El Train (Hoxton Hall); Outside Mullingar (Ustinov Studio, Bath); Billy Liar (Manchester Royal Exchange - winner of the Manchester Theatre Awards for Best Actor and Best Newcomer); Cornelius (Finborough Theatre, and 59E59 Theatres, New York - nominated for four Off West End Theatre Awards and Critics’ Pick, The New York Times) and Mixed Marriage (Finborough).
Film work includes: The Hope Rooms (winner of the Rhode Island International Film Festival Grand Prize Filmmaker of the Future Award); Cymbeline; All’s Well That Ends Well and Love’s Labour’s Lost (The Complete Walk, Shakespeare’s Globe) and music videos, Emeralds and Auld Wives for the Ivor Novello Award-nominated band Bear’s Den (Communion Music).
Radio work includes: Ecco (Radio 4).
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