Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal to direct Broadway’s ‘Othello’

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a Broadway production of “Othello” next year, sure to set up one of the hottest tickets of the 2024-2025 theater season.

Kenny Leon, who won a Tony Award in 2014 for directing a revival of “A Raisin in the Sun” starring Washington, will direct the production – the 22nd Broadway staging of “Othello” since 1751. according to the Internet Broadway database. Leon also directed Washington’s Tony-winning performance in a 2010 production of “Fences.”

A hugely successful film actor with two Academy Awards, for “Glory” and “Training Day,” Washington has appeared in five previous Broadway plays, most recently a 2018 revival of “The Iceman Cometh.”

Gyllenhaal, also best known for his film career (“Brokeback Mountain,” the upcoming remake of “Road House”), has appeared in three previous Broadway shows, most recently a 2019 monologue called “A Life,” which was paired with “Sea Wall’. ” for an evening of one-act plays.

In “Othello,” one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, Washington, 69, will play the title character, a general driven mad by jealousy. Gyllenhaal, 43, plays Iago, the story’s villain, who persuades Othello to question his wife’s fidelity. The role of Othello’s wife, Desdemona, has not yet been cast.

The revival is produced by Brian Anthony Moreland (“The Wiz”); The show is expected to open in spring 2025 at an unspecified Shubert Theater.

The last Broadway production of “Othello” was in 1982, starring James Earl Jones as Othello and Christopher Plummer as Iago.