Clive Owen’s Broadway ‘M. Butterfly’ Sets Dates, Theater

The upcoming Broadway revival of “M. Butterfly,” set to star Clive Owen in a production directed by Julie Taymor, has planted its flag in the Cort Theater, where the show will open in October.

David Henry Hwang’s 1988 play, which originally starred John Lithgow and B.D. Wong, centers on a French diplomat’s affair with a Chinese opera singer who’s hiding a surprising secret. Owen will play the diplomat in an updated version of the play that Hwang is writing, using new material that has been discovered about the historical story that inspired the show.

“M. Butterfly” will mark Taymor’s first Broadway production since “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” Her staging of “The Lion King” has long been one of Broadway’s top sellers, and in 2013 she earned strong notices for her Off Broadway production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“M. Butterfly” has claimed the Cort Theater after the upcoming departure of “Indecent,” which will close June 25 after winning two Tony Awards earlier this month. Produced by Nelle Nugent (“The Trip to Bountiful”), Steve Traxler (“Fiddler on the Roof”), Kenneth Teaton, Benjamin Feldman and Doug Morris (who is CEO of Sony Music), “M. Butterfly” moves into the venue to start previews Oct. 7 and open Oct. 26.

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