By Starting April 3rd, Jeff Goldblum will replace Alan Rickman in the Broadway play Seminar. The original cast of this production will have their final performance today at the Golden Theater. Here is a synopsis of the play, which was written by Theresa Rebeck:
Four young writers (Kate, Martin, Douglas, and Izzy) each pay a renowned editor and writing professor (Leonard) $5,000 for a 10-week private writing seminar. As tensions arise and romance falls between students, they clash over their writing, their relationships, and their futures.
Goldblum will take over as Leonard, which Rickman played brilliantly. There will be additional cast changes as well. Justin Long will make his Broadway debut, replacing Hamish Linklater as Martin; Zoe Lister-Jones will replace the exceptional Lily Rabe as Kate. Jerry O’Connell and Hettienne Park will remain as Douglas and Izzy.
I saw the show last weekend and it was quite good. Briefly: with varying degrees of wit, compassion, and anger, Seminar captures the frustrations of being a fledgling serious writer. Though I don’t think it’s perfect (one character who should have been a total s**t like everyone else winds up being a bit of a Mary Sue), there’s a memorable scene about the anonymity that some writers face — that life will be a series of failures, and that written work, no matter how good, will go mostly unrecognized and widely ignored. For anyone who has laid crumpled at their desk trying to write just one true sentence, that moment ought to hit like a little neutron bomb in the brain.
After the cut, a behind-the-scenes video of Jeff Goldblum and the new additions to the cast talking about Seminar.
[Via Theater Mania, Broadway World]
