Faye Dunaway will no longer take on Katharine Hepburn in a Broadway engagement of the Tea at Five. Producers Ben Feldman and Scott Beck have “terminated their relationship” with the Oscar winner, according to a representative, who also says plans are in place for a West End staging with a new performer early next year.
Dunaway recently headlined the Matthew Lombardo solo show at Boston's Huntington Theatre. The production, directed by John Tillinger, was expected to transfer to New York this year. The play would have marked her first Broadway performance since 1982's The Curse of an Aching Heart; the actor's additional stage credits include the national tour of Master Class.
Lombardo's play originally premiered in 2002 with Kate Mulgrew. The new version, produced by Ben Feldman and Scott Beck, streamlined the two-act format into 90 minutes and focused primarily on Hepburn in 1983 as she recovers from her car accident injury and looks back on her famed romance with Spencer Tracy.
