Actress Cynthia Nixon has announced she will wade into directing with a new production of the iconic lesbian drama Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. Ellen DeGeneres and Lily Tomlin have also signed on to produce along with Harriet Newman Leve, Portia de Rossi and Jane Wagner.
The New York Times has announced that Nixon, known both for her role in Sex and the City and for her run for Governor of New York in 2018, will mount the first-ever Broadway production of the 1980 play. Upon its off-Broadway debut, playwright Jane Chambers won praise for her depiction of lesbian life–a rarity on stage, even by today’s standards. The plot follows a group of lesbian women vacationing at the island of Bluefish Cove one summer, joined by a straight woman who hasn’t figured out that she’s surrounded by queer women.
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“None of the women in this play apologize for being lesbians,” Chambers told The Times in 1981. “They accept it and go on to lead productive lives. I don’t know why that should be a threat to people.”
An opening date, venue and cast have yet to be announced, though the play is set to open sometime this year.
