Roundabout Theatre Company has announced that Oscar nominee and Golden Globe, Tony Award, and Olivier Award—winner Janet McTeer will star in the upcoming production of Theresa Rebeck’s play Bernhardt/Hamlet. The play, which is set to begin previews on September 1, 2018 toward a September 25 opening, will be directed by Tony nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel.
“Mark Twain wrote: “There are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses. And then there is Sarah Bernhardt.” In 1899, the international stage celebrity set out to tackle her most ambitious role yet: Hamlet. Theresa Rebeck’s new play rollicks with high comedy and human drama, set against the lavish Shakespearean production that could make or break Bernhardt’s career. Janet McTeer, “one of the finest classical actresses of her generation” (The Telegraph), brings the legendary leading lady to life.”
McTeer is a celebrated actress of the stage and screen, winning the 1997 Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. That performance also marked her Broadway debut. Other theatre credits include the Broadway and West End runs of God of Carnage, The Duchess of Malfi, The Grace of Mary Traverse for The Royal Court Theatre, Uncle Vanya for the National Theater (both of which earned her Olivier Award nominations), Much Ado About Nothing in the West End, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the RSC. McTeer received her first Oscar nomination in 2000 for the film Tumblweeds, a performance for which she took home a Golden Globe Award. In 2012, she was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her starring role opposite Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs. She is also currently appearing in two Netflix series: Ozark as a series regular, season two of which will premiere later this year, and she is starring opposite Krysten Ritter in season two of Marvel’s Jessica Jones, which premiered March 8.
Playwright Theresa Rebeck is a prolific writer with success spanning theater, television, film, and literature. She is best known for her plays Seminar and Mauritius, which both premiered on Broadway, and her earlier works Spike Heels, Bad Dates and Omnium Gatherum, (Pulitzer Finalist, co-written with Alex Gersten) and her TV show Smash. Rebeck returns to Roundabout, where she is an Associate Artist, following her hit production of The Understudy (2009) at the Laura Pels Theatre.
Mark Robinson is the author of the two-volume encyclopedia The World of Musicals and maintains a theater and entertainment blog at markrobinsonwrites.com.