It'll be a new set of heels, well, no heels at all, for Cynthia Nixon, perhaps best known for her role as the red-headed lawyer Miranda on "Sex and the City."
The Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress will trade in pumps and cocktail dresses for a cancer patient's hospital gown when she stars in a 2012 Broadway production of "Wit," the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama written by Atlanta resident Margaret Edson.
It's a play with a topic that hits close to home for Nixon, who successfully battled breast cancer after being diagnosed in 2006 and is the daughter of a two-time cancer survivor. Nixon has been a cancer awareness activist ever since.
The new production will begin previews Jan. 5 and open Jan. 26 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in New York City. Nixon will play central character Vivian Bearing, a 50-year-old John Donne scholar intellectually musing through her final hours of life after battling stage four ovarian cancer. Directing will be Lynne Meadow, artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Club, which owns the Friedman Theatre.
Edson, 50, now lives in Atlanta with her partner and two children and works as a sixth-grade teacher at Inman Middle School. She has taught for 19 years. She saw "Wit's" success skyrocket in 1999 when it garnered waves of recognition -- a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award, to name a few.
Then came a 2001 HBO movie starring British actress Emma Thompson and countless productions across the U.S., but the play has never been on Broadway -- until now.
Despite the play's widespread attention, and the impending return to celebrity this new production could bring, Edson has held strong to her career as a schoolteacher.
"The success of ‘Wit' was fun," Edson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I had all kinds of great experiences -- lunch with Emma Thompson and Mike Nichols. But I knew it wouldn't last and it wasn't the only contribution I wanted to make. Where I want to truly influence people is in my classroom. People thought when ‘Wit' became successful that it would be the end of my teaching career. I told them to stay tuned."
This production also marks Nixon's return to the MTC. In 2006, she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play after starring in the MTC's production of "Rabbit Hole," a play by David Lindsay-Abaire about a family struggling with loss.
Meadow, who is also a cancer survivor, said she and Nixon bring a personal element of understanding to the play.
"It's the story of a woman faced with a life-threatening illness," Meadow said. "But it's also a lot about journey and transformation. That’s what’s so wonderful about Maggie's play. It provides a window into the soul of the protagonist. Cynthia is a terrific actress and a wonderful human being, and I knew she would be great for the role."
Nixon could not be reached immediately for comment.
Human struggle and love of literature come to the forefront of the critically acclaimed play. But even coupled with cancer and the imminence of death, Edson said, that isn't the focus.
"The medical side of the play, as with the literature aspect of the play are excuses to get the play going," she said. "If it’s useful to people to have conversations about illness, I’m pleased. It’s the motor, not the engine. The engine is grace."
So what is life like for the playwright leading up to the first curtain?
"It’s very boring," she said. "Boring in the best possible way."
About the Author
