The first edition cover of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel, “Murder on the Orient Express.”
The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, which presented Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” this season, will mount another Christie mystery, “Murder on the Orient Express,” as part of its 2016-17 season.
The play, which will run from March 14 to April 2, will be adapted from Christie’s novel by Ken Ludwig (whose plays “A Comedy of Tenors” and “Baskerville” have recently received first-class productions at the McCarter), and will be directed by the theater’s artistic director, Emily Mann.
“What’s thrilling here,” says Mann in the promotional video, below, “is that the Agatha Christie estate entrusted Ken Ludwig with the jewel in their crown, which is ‘Murder on the Orient Express.’ And so I feel greatly blessed that this institution, and myself as the director, have been entrusted with the world premiere.”
“Murder on the Orient Express,” originally published in 1934, is one of Christie’s most popular mysteries, and was made into a hit 1974 movie starring Albert Finney as detective Hercule Poirot.
Other plays in the McCarter season will include “Bathing in Moonlight,” a world premiere from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz (“Anna in the Tropics”), Sept. 9-Oct. 9; the Tony-nominated “Disgrace,” Oct. 11-30; a new production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Dec. 9-31; the New York-based Bedlam company’s four-actor productions of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and Shaw’s “Saint Joan,” performed in rotating repertory from Jan. 13 to Feb. 12; and “Intimate Apparel,” a historical romance by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage (“Ruined,” “Sweat”), May 5-June 4, 2017.
For information, visit mccarter.org.
