Cicely Tyson to Star in \'Trip to Bountiful\' on Broadway

Paul Buck/European Pressphoto Agency Cicely Tyson

The Academy Award-nominated actress Cicely Tyson will return to Broadway for the first time in 30 years to star in a revival of Horton Foote's 1953 drama “The Trip to Bountiful,” directed by Michael Wilson, the show's producers announced on Monday. The 14-week run is to begin previews on March 31 at the Stephen Sondheim Theater, with opening night scheduled for April 23.

Ms. Tyson, 78, will play Carrie Watts, an elderly woman who dreams of returning to her hometown of Bountiful, Tex., before she dies. First produced as a teleplay on NBC in 1953, starring Lillian Gish as Carrie Watts, “The Trip to Bountiful” had its Broadway premiere later that year with the sa me cast. Mr. Foote adapted the play into a 1985 film starring Geraldine Page, who won an Academy Award. In 2005, Lois Smith starred in an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival at the Signature Theater. Mr. Foote, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and two Academy Awards, died in 2009.

Additional casting for the revival is to be announced. A spokesman for the production said the Watts family members will be played by African-American actors, but it will not be an all-black cast.

Ms. Tyson's last stage appearance was in the Broadway revival of “The Corn is Green” in 1983. Her other stage credits include “The Blacks” (1961) by Jean Genet, and “Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright” (1962), with Alvin Ailey. She was nominated for a best actress Academy Award for her performance in the 1972 film “Sounder,” and in 1974 won two Emmy Awards for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”

The last tenant at the Sondheim Theater was the revival of “Anything Goes,” which closed in July. There was speculation that the musical adaptation of “Diner,” based on the hit Barry Levinson film of the same title, would open at the theater in the spring of 2013.