The devil of a role for Nathan?
NATHAN LANE is in negotiations to join the all-star cast at the National Theatre for the epic, two-part drama Angels In America.
His representatives, and executives at the National, have settled on him playing creepy lawyer Roy Cohn. But they still have to agree on terms about travel and accommodation for the Broadway actor, who’s a theatre god in New York.
Lane, who starred in the Broadway transfer of the musical The Producers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 12 years ago, would appear with Andrew Garfield, Russell Tovey and Denise Gough. (Gough has been garlanded with awards for her scorching performance in the NT’s production of Duncan Macmillan’s play People, Places And Things, which ends its run at Wyndham’s Theatre on June 18.)
Director Marianne Elliott will explore Tony Kushner’s play about the NY Aids epidemic through two plays: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika.
Cohn was once one of America’s most hated men. He was a Republican who stirred up trouble during the McCarthy witch hunts.
In Kushner’s plays, which weave real-life characters into fictional situations, he befriends Tovey’s Joe Pitt, a lawyer hiding from his sexuality. Joe is married to Harper Pitt (Gough), a woman who pops so much Valium she thinks she’s on an Antarctic ice floe.
Part 1 of Angels In America will run from April 20, 2017. The official opening day for both parts will be May 5.
There’s a lot of chatter already about them moving to Broadway after the NT run. But Gough will definitely be heading to New York, with People, Places And Things, late next year.