NEW YORK -- If Gore Vidal's 1957 comedy "Visit to a Small Planet" is not Broadway-bound, it's not for lack of a star-studded sendoff.
Producer Jeffrey Richards has assembled a stellar cast for a reading of the script that the playwright has "revised, updated and edited" from the original Broadway version. Scheduled to perform the new version March 4-11 are Alan Cumming, Lily Tomlin, Christine Baranski, Kristin Chenoweth, Tony Randall and Philip Bosco, among others. Cumming will read Kreton; Tomlin will read Gen. Tom Powers.
"Visit to a Small Planet" tells the story of an alien who travels to Earth to witness the Civil War but lands instead in the present, where he tries to start another world war.
"Gore has added some material and trimmed some material," including two characters, Richards said of Vidal's revised script.
Of show's Broadway plans, Richards said, "We'll see what happens."
The reading is produced by Richards, Michael B. Rothfeld and Raymond J. Greenwald, the team that produced last fall's Broadway revival of Vidal's "The Best Man."
Contact Robert Hofler at
bob.hofler@variety.com