Kiefer Sutherland in That Championship Season Begins Feb 9, 2011

That Championship Season to Play Broadway's Jacobs Theatre

Design Team Announced

That Championship Season Begins Feb 9th 2011 *Tix on Sale Dec 1, 2010*

By Andrew Gans and Adam Hetrick 01 Dec 2010 

Kiefer Sutherland
Photo by Fox

The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, currently the home of the new musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, has found its next tenant: the starry Broadway revival of Jason Miller's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning 1972 drama That Championship Season.

Bloody will end its run Jan. 2, 2011, and previews for the limited engagement of Championship Season will begin Feb. 9, 2011, with an official opening scheduled for March 6.

American Express card members can currently purchase tickets to the production by visiting Telecharge.com. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Dec. 11.

As previously reported, the cast will boast Brian Cox, Jim Gaffigan, Chris Noth, Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland. Cox (Rock 'n' Roll, Art) will portray the retired basketball coach in Miller's Scranton, PA-set drama about a team of high school basketball players who reunite to hash out the past on the anniversary of their winning game.

The former champs will include comedian Gaffigan ("Flight of the Concords") as George Sikowski, Golden Globe nominee Noth ("Sex and the City," Farragut North) as Phil Romano, Patric (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, "The Lost Boys") as Tom Daley and Golden Globe Award winner Sutherland in his Broadway debut as James Daley.

Gregory Mosher, who received a 2010 Tony nomination for his direction of the revival of A View From the Bridge, will direct the play.

The newly announced design team includes Michael Yeargan (sets), Jane Greenwood (costumes), Peter Kaczorowski (lights) and Scott Lehrer (sound).

That Championship Season premiered at the Public Theater on May 2, 1972, starring Charles Durning, Richard A. Dysart, Walter McGinn, Michael McGuire and Paul Sorvino, under the direction of A.J. Antoon. The production, with the original cast intact, transferred to Broadway's Booth Theatre on Sept. 11, 1972 and ran through April of 1974. Playwright Miller later directed the 1983 film. The Broadway production won the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play and the Tony Award for Best Play.

Producers are Robert Cole, Frederick Zollo, Shelter Island Enterprises, The Shubert Organization, James MacGilvray, Orin Wolf, The Weinstein Company, Redefined Entertainment and Brannon Wiles.

According to producers, "On the anniversary of their victory in the Pennsylvania state championship game, four members of the starting lineup of a small-town Catholic high school basketball team gather with their coach to re-live their youthful glory. As the night progresses, the long buried grudges and secrets of the once-confident players surface, threatening not just their solidarity, but the meaning of their victory. With savage humor,That Championship Season probes the darkest aspects of the American dream of success at all costs."

Source: Playbill.com