London Stage Adaptation of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Will Star Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges
Two leading young men are headed to Wyoming—on stage that is. Broadway alums Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges will star in a London production of Brokeback Mountain, playing Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar, respectively. Performances will begin May 10 at the Sohoplace Theatre, reports Deadline.
Both actors have been heralded for their work on screen and screen. Faist scored a BAFTA nomination for his work as Riff in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story; on Broadway, he originated the role of Connor Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen, earning a Tony nomination. He also played Morris Delancey in Newsies. Hedges was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in Manchester By the Sea in 2016 and later starred in the Main Stem production of The Waverly Gallery. His other credits include Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age movie Lady Bird and Yen Off-Broadway.
Based on Annie Proulx’s best-selling novel of the same name, Brokeback Mountain follows two ranch hands who fall in love in the untouched wilderness of the Rockys. Torn between passion and family obligations, the pair struggle to find a happy medium in which they can live as their authentic selves.
Proulx’s short story was originally published in The New Yorker in 1997 and will serve as the inspiration for the stage piece. There is no connection with the 2005 Oscar-nominated film adaptation by Ang Lee, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. (That movie famously lost Best Picture, one of the most controversial upsets in Academy Awards history.)
Brokeback Mountain is considered a play with music, written by Ashley Robinson with Jonathan Butterell (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) serving as director. Dan Gillespie Sells is writing some of the music with acclaimed singer-songwriter Eddi Reader set to perform onstage with a band.
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