Breaking Baz: Sarah Snook Signs For 2025 Broadway Run Of Her West End Hit ‘The Picture Of Dorian Gray’
EXCLUSIVE: Succession star Sarah Snook plays her final performances Saturday night at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket in the enthralling, award-winning play The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the actress now has signed on take it to Broadway for a season in the spring of 2025.
Nothing’s confirmed for NYC, but as soon as a theatre deal is settled next month, the whole big Broadway deal will be announced.
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Snook was crowned with an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play during a lavish ceremony last month at the Royal Albert Hall.
Earlier this year, in quick succession, the thespian took home Best Actress honors at the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards, the Emmys and SAG Awards and garlands on home turf in her native Australia for her blistering performance as Shiv Roy in Succession.
Kip Williams, artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company, who adapted and directed the Oscar Wilde play, has scouted theatres in New York with producers Michael Cassel of the Michael Cassel Group and Adam Kenwright of Kindred Partners. So far they’ve been offered three houses and, I understand, there’s the possibility of a fourth becoming available to them.
Access Entertainment’s chief executive Danny Cohen, also a producer of the show in London, with Len Blavatnik, will join Cassel and Kenwright in producing on Broadway, as will NYC theatre owner Daryl Roth.
The play, which originated at the Sydney Theatre Company’s Roslyn Packer Theatre in November 2020 — in which Jean Norvill created the 26 different characters — has played a 13?-week season at the Haymarke, in front of a record-breaking 83,000 people at the 821-capacity house.
Producers held back four seats per show for special guests.
After both Snook and the show garnered glowing notices from London critics, screen stars, rock stars, Premier League stars and other celebrities vied daily for those four golden tickets. I heard that many a big name had to be turned down.
However, Nicole Kidman — who told me she “loved it!” — Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Emily Blunt and Succession family members Brian Cox and Kieran Culkin all made the cut for those scorchingly hot tickets.
Somehow, no one’s quite fathomed out how, superstar model Kate Moss saw the show twice. She “adored” Marg Horwell’s Olivier Award-winning costumes and “loved” Snook’s command of the stage.
Importantly, The Picture of Dorian Gray made some money.
Loitering close to the box office on a recent sunny afternoon, I discovered that the production, capitalized at $2.5 million, recouped some weeks ago and ends its run of 101 performances healthily in profit. Snook played all 101 of them.
Big theatres across America, including one in Los Angeles, want Snook and the play.
But thus far, only Broadway will have her name in lights on a marquee, for the actor is much in demand for movie and TV work.
First, though, she, her husband and baby daughter will depart London next week for a well-deserved break. Then she’ll consider an avalanche of offers.
Last month my colleague Andreas Wiseman reported exclusively that Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films acquired the film rights to The Picture of Dorian Gray production.
Those rights actually were secured two years ago, but it was kept under wraps until Deadline broke the news.
That kinda means the rights were obtained for Blanchett to play the 26 roles in a feature film.
But, who knows? Perhaps one thought for the film version would be to get 26 different actors to play the 26 roles — and Snook would be one of them.
I throw that out there.
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