Julie Taymor will direct a revival of “M. Butterfly,” David Henry Hwang’s Tony-award winning play, BroadwayWorld reports. The drama originally opened on Broadway in 1988 and starred John Lithgow (“Dexter,” “3rd Rock from the Sun”) and B.D. Wong (“Mr. Robot, “Law and Order: SVU”).
“M. Butterfly” is based on a true story about a French diplomat who, BroadwayWorld writes, “fell in love with a member of the Peking Opera, unaware that the object of his passion was a man.”
Rehearsals for the upcoming production are scheduled to kick off January 2017, with performances expected to begin February 2017 for “an open-ended run.”
An official announcement hasn’t been made, but a casting notice was posted via Actors Equity and BroadwayWorld writes that the news has been confirmed.
Taymor made history in 1998 when she became the first woman to win the Tony Award for directing a musical, “The Lion King.” The stage adaptation of Disney’s animated film is Broadway’s highest grossing production of all time. In 2012 Taymor received the Director Award for Vision and Courage from the Athena Film Festival, a celebration of women and leadership.
Last year Taymor directed Anne Hathaway in “Grounded,” a single-actor drama about a pilot required to operate an unmanned drone. The play is being made into a film with Hathaway starring and producing, but no word on whether Taymor, whose big-screen directing credits include “Frida” and “Across the Universe,” will helm the project.
