Bradley Cooper has been talking about bringing The Elephant Man to Broadway for a couple of years now and that dream is finally coming true for the two-time Oscar nominee. The actor is taking the story of John Merrick to New York.
Although there was buzz last week about the possibility of the American Hustle star taking on the role again, Cooper’s rep did not confirm the news until this week. His rep told Entertainment Weekly that the production will happen, but there’s still no word yet on where it will be performed. It will open in the fall, though.
Cooper, who just earned his second Oscar nomination for American Hustle, said in 2012 that he wanted to play Merrick on Broadway. He performed the play at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts in 2012 with Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola. It’s not known if the actresses will reprise their roles.
The Elephant Man was famously brought to the screen by David Lynch in 1980 with John Hurt as the lead, but the play is not based on the film. The play was written by Bernard Pomerance and was last performed on Broadway in 2002 with Billy Crudup and Kate Burton.
As for Cooper, he hasn’t been on Broadway since 2006, when he did Three Days of Rain with Julia Roberts.
image: Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage/image.net