Keri Russell joins Adam Driver in Broadway revival of Burn This

Director says she has "great intelligence and passion"

by Anne-Katrin Titze

‪Michael Mayer‬ on ‪Keri Russell joining Adam Driver in the director's Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This‬: "We did a reading of the play with Adam some weeks ago, and I responded immediately to her great intelligence and passion."
‪Michael Mayer‬ on ‪Keri Russell joining Adam Driver in the director's Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This‬: "We did a reading of the play with Adam some weeks ago, and I responded immediately to her great intelligence and passion." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

‪Michael Mayer‬, the director of The Seagull (starring Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, and Brian Dennehy) and the timely and rapturous Broadway musical Head Over Heels (based on Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia featuring the song catalogue of The Go-Go's and Belinda Carlisle), has just announced that ‪Keri Russell will be joining her Star Wars: Episode IX comrade Adam Driver (star of Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman) in Mayer's Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This‬. The original production of Burn This in 1987 starred John Malkovich and Joan Allen.

Michael Mayer,‬ who is also directing Nico Muhly's opera Marnie, based on Winston Graham’s novel, at The Metropolitan Opera in New York, will participate in a discussion with playwright Nicholas Wright, moderated by Paul Cremo (Dramaturg at The Metropolitan Opera) before the screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on September 20.

‪Michael Mayer‬ sent me the following e-mail this morning on the casting of Keri Russell for Burn This when I inquired if he had worked with her before:

"I’ve not worked with her before, but I’ve been a fan of her acting for many years now. We did a reading of the play with Adam some weeks ago, and I responded immediately to her great intelligence and passion. She’s also innately sympathetic, and, not surprisingly, even more beautiful and kind than you could imagine. Keri and Adam have terrific chemistry, and I can’t wait to start rehearsals in the new year." - Michael

Burn This will begin performances in March 2019.

Read what Michael Mayer had to say on ‪a Pharrell Williams film, Head Over Heels, Nico Muhly's Marnie, and Adam Driver in Burn This‬.

Read what Michael Mayer had to say on Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Brian Dennehy and Ann Roth's costumes for The Seagull.

Read what Michael Mayer had to say on Nico Muhly, remembering the past, and a Hamlet scene not shot for The Seagull.

The Seagull is in cinemas in the US.

Head Over Heels opened on July 26 at the Hudson Theatre in New York.

The English National Opera had the world premiere of Nico Muhly's Marnie at the Coliseum in London in 2017. Marnie at The Metropolitan Opera in New York will run from October 19 through November 10.

La Traviata, directed by Michael Mayer will open on December 4 at The Metropolitan Opera and run through April 27, 2018.

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