‘The Heiress’, starring Jessica Chastain, will play its final performance one day early

The Broadway revival of The Heiress, starring Jessica Chastain, David Strathairn, Dan Stevens and Judith Ivey, will now play its final performance on Saturday, February 9th at 7pm.

It was previously scheduled to end that Sunday the 10th but that performance was cancelled to let Chastain attend the BAFTA Awards (the British equivalent to the Academy Awards) where she is nominated for Best Actress. The awards show is on that Sunday in London.

Chastain is also nominated for an Academy Award and has already received Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards for her performance in the film Zero Dark Thirty.

The Heiress is currently playing at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre (219 W. 48th St. NYC).

I saw the show back in December and liked it a lot. Chastain was great and it was a role I hadn’t seen her play yet so if you get a chance, definitely check it out.

Up Until 6 Weeks Ago, Jessica Chastain Thought She Was Flying Under The Radar

Jessica Chastain is currently queen of the box office, after two of her movies led ticket sales this past weekend.  Her horror flick, Mama, and the Oscar-nominated, Zero Dark Thirty, offered moviegoers completely different fare, but cemented the fact that Chastain is a force to be reckoned with.

The 35-year-old recently walked away with a Best Actress award from the Golden Globes for her portrayal of the CIA agent responsible for killing Osama bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty.  Along with statues from the National Board of Review, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and a Critics Choice Award, Chastain is proving that she’s a true winner in the acting world.

She was nominated for an Oscar last year for her role in The Help, and is now admitting, “Two awards seasons in a row.  I think people are starting to notice me.” Read more

Jessica Chastain on ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Research and Her Broadway Debut in ‘The Heiress’

Jessica Chastain has just earned her second Oscar nomination for her role in the terrorist drama, Zero Dark Thirty.  The actress, previously nominated for her role in last year’s The Help, became fully immersed in her role as a CIA agent in the film.

“I asked [screenwriter Mark Boal] a lot of questions about the CIA, about the woman, everything about the scenes…You don’t think there are that many questions but there are thousands that come up,” Chastain said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.  “I read The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.  Michael Scheuer’s book, Osama bin Laden, which I found to be fantastic.  I learned so much about him which I could never have learned from reading articles or following regular news.  Then I had to use my imagination to fill in the blanks of what I couldn’t find in the research about this woman.” Read more

Jessica Chastain on Her Wardrobe in ‘The Heiress’ and What She Whispers to Herself Every Night

After the announcement that Oscar-nominated workaholic actress Jessica Chastain would be making her Broadway debut in The Heiress in the lead role of Catherine, one wonders how Chastain feels about stepping out on a Broadway stage for the first time.  She spoke to New York magazine about one of the more trickier aspects of the productions: what she will be wearing!

Being a period piece set in the 1850s (the play, written in 1947, is based off Henry James’s novel Washington Square), Chastain had to not only learn the part but try to envision what her character would be wearing.  She says, “As an actor, you approach the characters from what the script tells you. You don’t think about, Well, what do I look like compared to what she looks like?“ 

In fact, one of the more difficult aspects of the production for Chastain was getting used to the period clothing, which she actually tried to stay in as long as possible — even during rehearsals.  She explains, “I’m a jeans girl, but a blue-jeans way of moving is very different from wearing petticoats, so from day one, I was wearing the shoes, the skirt, the corset. I never really left the rehearsal room.  It took so long to put everything on every day, it’s like, Well, I’ll just bring my lunch and eat it here.” Read more

Jessica Chastain on Making Her Broadway Debut in ‘The Heiress’

If you took a time machine all the way back to 2010 and started to talk to people about the Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain, there’s a big chance that nobody would know who you were talking about.  Of course, I could think of a lot better ways of using a time machine, but the point still stands: after starring in six (!) films in 2011 alone, including The Help, Chastain has become a praised actress in Hollywood and is often on the shortlist for many upcoming projects. 

But now that she’s become a star in film Chastain is returning to another one of her passions by making her Broadway debut in The Heiress in the lead role of Catherine Sloper.  She spoke to Yahoo! News about the challenges of taking on such a role and why she is returning to theater.

As for whether she feels any pressure starring in a show that has been on Broadway before (The Heiress has been previously performed on Broadway in 1947, 1950, 1976, and 1995 and was also made into a 1949 film starring Olivia de Havilland as Catherine), Chastain says, “I don’t feel trepidation because what it shows is what an exquisite role Catherine is.  There’s no way my Catherine will be the same as Olivia de Havilland’s Catherine or Cherry Jones‘ or Jane Alexander‘s. We’re such different women with different sensibilities. I don’t feel the nervousness of it, because I could never be the wonder that is them and I just have to find who Catherine is to me.” Read more

Jessica Chastain Talks Julliard and Gearing Up for Her Broadway Debut in ‘The Heiress’

Jessica Chastain, star of recent films like The Help and The Tree of Life, will be making her Broadway debut in The Heiress in November.  The actress took on the role because she thinks of it as one of the greatest women roles ever written.

“I always look for a great arc,” she told The New York Times.  “Men get great arcs all the time, especially in movies, but it’s very rare for a woman to get an arc.  Catherine [her role in The Heiress] absolutely has that.  She finds her voice, which is a wonderful thing to play.” Read more

Dan Stevens, Star of ‘Downtown Abbey,’ To Make His Broadway Debut in ‘The Heiress’ Opposite Jessica Chastain & David Strathairn

Dan Stevens, star of the Golden Globe-winning series Downton Abbey, will play the role of “Morris Townsend” opposite Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain and Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® Award winner David Strathairn in the Tony Award®-winning play The Heiress.

“I couldn’t ask for a more exciting Broadway debut: to work on such a fascinating play, with such fantastic actors as Jessica Chastain and David Strathairn and one of Broadway’s great directors, Moisés Kaufman,” said Stevens. “I can’t wait to get started.”

Stevens is currently shooting season three of Downton Abbey. On stage, his credits include the lead role of “Septimus Hodge” in David Leveaux’s hit West End production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, and the “Doctor” in Tom Stoppard and André Previn’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre. Read more

David Strathairn will join Jessica Chastain on Broadway in ‘The Heiress’

It was just announced that Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® Award winner David Strathairn will join Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain in the Tony Award®-winning play The Heiress. 

Written by Ruth Goetz & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award® nominated playwright and director Moisés Kaufman and will open in the Fall of 2012 at a theatre to be announced.

This production marks 17 years since the celebrated play was last seen on Broadway. The Heiress is based on the classic Henry James novel Washington Square and became an Academy Award-winning film.

Strathairn won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival and in 2006 earned nominations from the Academy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Independent Spirit Awards for his compelling portrait of legendary CBS news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney’s Oscar-nominated drama Good Night, and Good Luck. He won an Emmy in 2010 for Best Supporting Actor in the HBO project, Temple Grandin. He’s kept a high profile in the theatrical world with roles at such venues as the Manhattan Theatre Club, the New York Shakespeare Festival, SoHo Rep, the Hartford Stage Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre and Seattle Repertory. Read more

Jessica Chastain to Make Her Broadway Debut in ‘The Heiress’

Jessica Chastain will make her Broadway debut this fall in The Heiress.

The play is based on the classic Henry James novel Washington Square and became an Academy Award-winning film.  Written by Ruth Goetz & Augustus Goetz, the show will be directed by Tony Award® nominated playwright and director Moisés Kaufman and will open in the Fall of 2012 at a theatre to be announced.

This production marks 17 years since the celebrated play was last seen on Broadway.  The original production premiered on Broadway in 1947 at the Biltmore Theatre.

A Juilliard graduate, Chastain’s stage work includes the title role of Salome, opposite Al Pacino, Othello at the Public Theater and Rodney’s Wife at Playwrights Horizons.

Paula Wagner, one of the producers said of Chastain: “I was immediately struck by Jessica’s talent and skill when I saw her on stage opposite Al Pacino in Salome. She is an actress with that rare ability to transition effortlessly between the stage and screen. Moisés Kaufman had the vision to see Jessica as the perfect actress to play one of the great psychologically complex female characters.”  Read more