Oscar-winning film star Al Pacino is to return to Broadway next fall in the world premiere of David Mamet's new play China Doll, producers announced Thursday.
Pam MacKinnon will direct the production, which will begin performances in October 2015 at a Shubert theater to be announced.
"China Doll is a play about a wealthy man, his young fiancee, and an airplane," Mamet said in a statement. "The man has just bought a new plane as a wedding present for the girl. He intends to go into semiretirement, and enjoy himself. He's in the process of leaving his office, and is giving last-minute instructions to his young assistant. He takes one last phone call... The characters are Mickey Ross, a billionaire; Carson, the assistant; and a telephone. I wrote it for Al. It is better than oral sex."
Pacino was last seen on Broadway portraying the role of Shelly Levene in the revival of Mamet's acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Glengarry Glen Ross in 2013. Mamet and Pacino also collaborated on the 1983 Broadway revival of American Buffalo and HBO's 2013 Phil Spector biopic.
"For me, over the years, the relationship and the collaboration with David Mamet has been one of the richest and most rewarding. We've done four projects together and the opportunity to create a new character in the David Mamet canon was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. So, Dave gave me China Doll, a new play he had written for me and it blew me away... one of the most daunting and challenging roles I've been given to explore onstage. It's a special gift to originate a role in the theater, especially written by such a formidable writer and I haven't done that in a long, long time."
China Doll will mark the eighth presentation of a Mamet work by producers Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, and Steve Traxler.
Source: UPI