Jane Fonda Returns to Broadway

Oscar-winning actress, activist, author, and exercise guru, Jane Fonda, will return to the stage in 2009. According to the Associated Press, she will portray modern-day musicologist Katherine Brandt in 33 Variations, a play written and directed by Moises Kaufman. Fonda last appeared on Broadway in 1963 in the drama, Strange Interlude. She made her debut on Broadway in 1960, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in the play, There Was a Little Girl.

Jane Fonda, now 70, is most widely known for her various film roles. She claimed the Best Actress Academy Awards in the films Klute (1972) and Coming Home (1979), but has also appeared in such films as On Golden Pond, Julia, Barbarella, and Barefoot in the Park.

Moises Kaufman, Tony winning director of the play, I Am My Own Wife, has also received much acclaim for his disturbing drama, The Laramie Project, a play that tells the story about the murder of a young, gay man, Matthew Shepard, who was beaten and bound to death in his Wyoming town. Kaufman returns to the stage with his new play, 33 Variations, this winter. The play features a present-day musicologist, Katherine Brandt, and her study of Beethoven's fascination with a particular piece of music.

The world premiere of 33 Variations was made at the Arena Stage in Washington in 2007.