Blanchett set for N.Y. 'Vanya'

Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in Uncle Vanya Thesps Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh and Hugo Weaving will appear at NY's Lincoln Center Festival in the Sydney Theater Company's production of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" from July 19-28. NY theatergoers have welcomed productions from the Sydney Theatre Company twice in the last five years, with its productions of Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" and Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2006 and 2009, respectively. The STC staging of "Vanya," which also played Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center in August, has been well received critically: Variety's Paul Harris called the production "sublime"; the Washington Post's Peter Marks said the production was his favorite piece of theater this year; and NY Times critic Ben Brantley declared the show's three hours "among the happiest of my theatergoing life."