Adam Driver, who you can catch in the new “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” movie this weekend, has been cast in the revival of Lanford Wilson’s 1987 drama Burn This, set to play at a Broadway theater in 2019.
Driver, who has received the Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in Lena Dunham’s HBO hit show Girls three years in a row, and who stars as Kylo Ren in the two latest Star Wars films, actually got his start on the New York stage. He made his Broadway debut in 2010 as Frank Gardner in Mrs. Warren’s Profession and the following year, played Basil Anthony in Terence Rattigan’s Man and Boy.
“Driver will play the role of Pale, the dangerously sexy restaurant owner who falls for a dancer named Anna. Set in downtown New York in the 1980s, the story follows their troubled relationship in the wake of a shared tragedy—the death of Pale’s brother and Anna’s roomate and dance partner,” Playbill reports. In the original production, the role was played by John Malkovich.
Burn This will be directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening), who is also attached to the Go-Go’s musical Head Over Heels, set to hit Broadway next year. It will be produced by David Binder, who also worked on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as well as the Broadway adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men starring James Franco.
The show was originally scheduled to return to Broadway this year, with Mayer directing and Jake Gyllenhaal in the role of Pale, but Gyllenhaal chose instead to pursue the revival of Sunday in the Park with George.
Additional casting and creative team for Burn This, as well as a theater, are yet to be announced.