“Executioner” is saved from the executioner.
The dark comedy, from British playwright Martin McDonagh, will premiere on Broadway this spring, two years after the production was canceled by the producer as the coronavirus pandemic forced theaters to close.
The resurrected production, about an English executioner when Britain outlawed the death penalty, will now star Alfie Allen, who played Theon Greyjoy in “Game of Thrones,” as a mysterious visitor to a bar run by the executioner. . The executioner is played by David Threlfall, a Tony nominee for “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.”
The play is now scheduled to begin previews on April 8 and open April 21 at the Golden Theater.
By 2020, “Hangmen,” featuring a slightly different cast, had completed its 13th preview performance, also at the Golden, and was a week away from opening when the Broadway theaters closed.
Eight days after the closure, the producers announced that they were canceling production, saying, “We do not have the economic resources to continue paying the theater owners, cast and crew during this still undefined closing period.” The show was the first, and one of the few, to take such a step.
“I’m not saying I had any wisdom, but when people said we would be open again in four weeks, I would never have believed it,” lead producer Robert Fox said this week. “There was still being charged rent and all kinds of expenses that we didn’t have the money for. I assumed this was the end of ‘Hangmen’ on Broadway.”
But the play was given a new lease of life by the U.S. government: It was awarded a $5.2 million Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, then given an extension to use that money through June 30, 2022. Fox said a combination of the federal support , and investors returning money they received from an insurance claim, “meaning we had enough to get the show going and hopefully be able to support it in its early days, if it needs support.”
Much had to be reconsidered: In the past two years, one of the play’s producers, Elizabeth I. McCann, died; several of the play’s protagonists were unavailable for personal or professional reasons; and the set was disassembled. But Fox said he wanted to try again, largely because of his fondness for the work of McDonagh, a four-time Tony nominee whose other plays include “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” and whose films include “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” ”
“I’m a huge fan of Martin – I think he’s a real original and a brilliant writer, and this is Martin’s third play I’ve produced on Broadway,” Fox said. “I don’t think anyone is doing it again because they think they’re going to make a lot of money, but they believe it’s a beautiful piece by Martin, and hopefully people want to see and enjoy a dark mystery comedy.”
“Hangmen” began life in London, at the Royal Court Theater, then, after a West End run, had an Off Broadway production at the Atlantic Theater Company, where DailyExpertNews critic Ben Brantley called it “criminally enjoyable called. Matthew Dunster has directed every production and will do so again on Broadway; the Broadway production will feature Tracie Bennett (“End of the Rainbow”) as the executioner’s wife.
