Cate Blanchett to make her Broadway debut in 'The Present'

NEW YORK, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Double Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett is to make her Broadway debut in The Present, her husband Andrew Upton's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's first play Platonov.

Co-starring Richard Roxburgh, it will have its New York premiere early next winter. John Crowley is directing the play, which was a hit when it ran in Sydney last summer.

The theater, complete casting and an opening date for the production will be announced soon, its producers said.

"Andrew Upton's adaptation is set post-Perestroika in the mid-1990s at an old country house where friends gather to celebrate the birthday of the independent but compromised widow Anna Petrovna," a synopsis said. "At the center is the acerbic and witty Platonov with his wife, his former students and friends and their partners. They may appear comfortable, but boiling away inside is a mess of unfinished, unresolved relationships, fueled by 20 years of denial, regret and thwarted desire."

Crowley and Blanchett will both be at next month's Oscars ceremony. Blanchett is nominated for Best Actress for Carol and Crowley helmed the Best Picture contender Brooklyn.