Alan Cumming Taking on One-Man ‘Macbeth’ on Broadway in April

Alan Cumming will bring his one-man adaptation of “Macbeth” to Broadway this spring.

The production will being previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, and the opening is set for April 21. The limited engagement is scheduled to run through June 30.

John Tiffany, known for directing the Broadway version of “Once” as well for productions of “The Glass Menagerie” and “Black Watch,” will direct Cumming in the tale that finds him in a psychiatric unit reliving the legendary Shakespeare story. The production premiered at the National Theatre of Scotland in June 2012 and had a New York engagement at the Rose Theatre in July of last year.  Cumming also released a two-disc audiobook of the play last year for Simon & Schuster.

“‘Macbeth’ is set in a clinical room deep within a dark psychiatric unit,” said producers of the show. “Cumming is the lone patient, reliving the infamous story and inhabiting each role himself. Closed circuit television cameras watch the patient’s every move as the walls of the psychiatric ward come to life in a visually stunning multi-media theatrical experience of Shakespeare’s notorious tale of desire, ambition and the supernatural.”

Cummings plays all the characters in “Macbeth” himself, and he will be joined in the play by two additional actors that will be announced later.

“It’s a chance to see one of the most versatile theater actors in a unique performance of one of the greatest plays ever written,” producer Ken Davenport told the New York Times. “I think there will be an audience for that.”

Davenport also said that he remains optimistic that Cumming’s draw will overcome the financial risk of the production.

“I’m thinking of this as a theatrical event,” he continued. “Some producers would say ‘no way’ to the six-performance business model, but I’m trying to turn it into a positive by saying, ‘You only have 73 performances to see this guy go through it.’”